LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

i|ap %ajri# In 

Shelf ...111 & 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LIVING THOUGHTS 



EDITED BY 

G. A. "MEANS 



,1 



Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shall the world's famine feed; 

Speak truly, and each word of thine 
Shall be a fruitful seed ; 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 

H. BONAR. 




BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 



"*5r 



)t Congress 

— * |V\ 4 ^ 

WASHINGTON ^ 

— 1 * 



v 



Copyright, 1886, 
by 

Miriam B. Means. 



PREFATORY. 



HOW is the soul oft strengthened and 
refreshed by the sincere utterances of 
devout minds ! In preparing this volume, the 
compiler has sought to make such a selection 
of thoughts as will aid those who are striving 
to lead a Christian life. It has been a pleas- 
ant task to cull them from the writings of the 
earnest and the gifted. May they incite to 
many a good word and work, and lead to a 
closer union with Him who is "the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life." 

C. A. Means. 

Dorchester. 




(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Christian Experience. ....... i 

The Christian Graces. ....... 83 

Christian Effort 151 

The Source of Strength 193 




SELECTIONS 
Are made from the following Authors. 



Prose. 



Beechee, Rev. H. W. 


MacDonald, Rev. George. 


Bethune, Dr. G. W. 


Monod, Rev. Adolphe. 


Boyd, Rev A. K. H. 


Muller, Rev. Julius. 


Chalmers, Dr. Thomas. 


Pascal, Blaise. 


Charles, Mrs. 


Phelps, Prof. Austin. 


Craik, Mrs. 


Pusey, Dr. E. B. 


Cudwoeth, Dr. Ralph. 


Raleigh, Dr. Alexander. 


Dale, Rev. R. W. 


Robertson, Rev. F. TV. 


Edwards, Prof. B. B. 


Tauler, Dr. John. 


Gasparin, Madame de. 


Taylor, Bishop Jeremy. 


Goulburn, Dr. E. M. 


Taylor, Isaac. 


Guthrie, Dr. Thomas. 


Tholuck, Prof. 


Hall, Rev. Robert. 


Thompson, Dr. A. C 


Hamilton, Dr. James. 


Tweedie, Dr. W. H. 


Helps, Arthur. 


Tyng, Dr. S. H. 


Irving, Rev. Edward. 


Tytler, Sarah. 


Kingsley, Rev. Charles. 


Upham, Prof. T. C. 


Krummacher, Dr. F. W. 


Walton, Izaak. 


Liddon, Rev. H. P. 


Wayland, Dr. Francis. 



(vii) 



List of Authors. 



Angelus. 
Auber, Harriet. 
Bathcrst, W. H. 

BONAR, HORATIUS. 

Browning, Mes. E. B. 
Cary, Phcebe. 
conder, josiah. 
Crasselius. 
Dix, W. C. 
Dressler. 
Faber, F. W. 
Gellert, C. F. 
Gerhardt, Paul. 
Herbert, George. 
Ingelow, Jean. 
Keble, J orn. 
Kimball, H. M. 



Lampertius. 

LlTTLEWOOD, "W. E. 

macleod, xorman. 
Montgomery, James. 
Morris, Eliza F. 
Noble, Miss. 
Porter, E. C. 
Procter, A. A. 
Bossetti, Christina. 
Schmolk, B. 
Tennyson, Alfred. 
Trench, R. C. 
Wesley, Charles. 
Weiszel. 
Whittier, J. G. 
"Winslow, Miss. 




M I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live : yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son 
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," Galatians ii. 20. 



> 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 



HY should thought gravitate perpetual- 



▼ ly earthward, as if it were a senseless 
stone? Why should it grovel habitually amid 
the petty ambitions, self-assertions, personali- 
ties, passions, lusts, which form the moral mire 
through which our souls have so often to drag 
heavily their anxious way? A passage of Holy 
Scripture committed to memory ; some sen- 
tence of a great author, consecrated by the 
recognition of ages ; some lines of an ancient 
hymn, or, if you will, of a modern one, — 
these may give wings to thought. But for your 
own sakes, for God's sake, let your thought 
rise. Bid it, force it to rise. Think of the 




4 



Christian Experience. 



face of Jesus ; of your future home in heaven ; 
of those revered and loved ones who have gone 
before you, and who beckon you on towards 
them from their place of rest in Paradise. 
Think of all that has ever cheered, strength- 
ened, quickened, braced yourselves. In such 
thoughts, to such thoughts, Jesus will assuredly 
and increasingly reveal Himself. As He re- 
veals Himself, thought will take a new shape ; 
it will melt insensibly into the incense of a 
prayer that shall greet His presence. 

An active, personal love of our Lord Jesus 
Christ makes the " seeking things above " a 
constant reality in the life of the soul. With- 
out this love, all else that seems to be religious 
is hollow and vain. The love of Jesus conse- 
crates and brings into a focus all earthly affec- 
tion. It is the central feature, the controlling 
principle, the mainspring, the heart of a life 
which is risen from the grave of sin, and 
which is abidingly supernatural. It alone 
forms in us a real, personal, and practical re- 
ligion ; it alone generates the thoughts, the 



II 



Christian Experience. 5 



feelings, the mental and moral habits of a 
being who will have to live forever in a higher 
world. May God vouchsafe of His great mer- 
cy to shed it abroad more and more in our 
hearts ! May He, at last, when He beholds in 
us, not indeed our worthless merits, but His 
own most precious gifts, "be merciful to us, 
and bless us, and show us the light of His 
countenance"! H> R LlDD0N< 




'LING wide the portals of your heart ; 
Make it a temple, set apart 



From earthly use, for heaven's employ, 
Adorned with prayer, and love and joy ; 
So shall your Sovereign enter in, 
And new and nobler life begin. 

Redeemer, come ! we open wide 

Our hearts to Thee ; here, Lord, abide ! 

Let us Thy inner presence feel, 

Thy grace and love in us reveal, 

Thy Holy Spirit guide us on, 

Until the glorious crown be won ! 

Weiszel. 



6 



Christian Experience. 



HAT a change came over all my heart 



▼ ▼ when I learned, through Dr. Luther's 
teaching, that God is love — is our Father ; 
that Christ is the Saviour, who gave Himself 
for our sins, and loved us better than life ; that 
heaven is our Father's house ; that holiness is 
simply loving God and loving one another; 
that the service we have to render is simply to 
give thanks and to do good, — when, as Dr. 
Luther said, that word "our" was written deep- 
ly in my heart; that for oar sins He died, — 
for mine ; that for all, for us, for me. He gave 
Himself! 

And then Fritz told us how he had toiled and 
tormented himself to reconcile God to him, until 
he found, through Dr. Luther's teachings, that 
our sins have been borne away by the Lamb 
of God — the sacrifice, not of man's gift, but of 
God's; "that in that one person, Jesus Christ, 
we had forgiveness of sins and eternal life ; " 
that God is to us as the Father to the prodigal 
son — entreating us to be reconciled to Him. 




Christian Experience. 



1 



And he told us, also, how he had longed for a 
priest who could know infallibly all his heart, 
and secure him from the deceitfulness and im- 
perfectness of his own confessions, and assure 
him, that knowing all his sin to its depths, with 
all its aggravations, he yet pronounced him ab- 
solved. And at last he had found that Priest, 
penetrating to the depths of his heart, tracing 
every act to its motive, every motive to its 
source, and yet pronouncing him absolved, 
freely, fully, at once ; imposing no penance, 
but simply desiring a life of thanksgiving in 
return. "And this Priest," he added, "is with 
me always ; I make my confession to Him 
every evening, or oftener, if I need it ; and as 
often as I confess, He absolves, and bids me 
be of good courage — go in peace, and sin no 
more. But He is not on earth ; He dwells in 
the holy of holies, which never more is empty, 
like the solitary sanctuary of the old temple on 
all days in the year but one. " He ever liveth 
to make intercession for us." 

Mrs. Charles. 



8 



Christian Experience. 



FAITH is not what we feel or see ; 
It is a simple trust 
In what the God of Love has said 
Of Jesus as " the Just." 

The Perfect One, that died for me, 

Upon His Father's throne 
Presents our names before our God, 

And pleads Himself alone. 

What Jesus is, and that alone, 

Is faith's delightful plea ; 
It never deals with sinful self, 

Or righteous self, in me. 

It tells me I am counted " dead " 

By God, in His own word ; 
It tells me I am born again 

In Christ, my risen Lord. 

Miss Noble. 



ABOUT this time, a shoemaker waited 
upon Madame De Krudner, in compli- 
ance with her orders. She allowed him to 



Christian Experience, 9 



take the measure, without looking at him ; but 
on his asking some question, she took her hand 
from before her eyes. His cheerful counte- 
nance seemed like a reproach to her depres- 
sion. She answered him shortly, and relapsed 
into melancholy ; but, before long, she said to 
him, " My friend, are you happy? " " I am the 
happiest of men," was the answer. She said 
nothing ; but the tone of his voice and his 
beaming look haunted her so that she could 
not sleep. She said to herself, w He is 
happy, the happiest of men, and I am the 
most miserable of mortals." She could not 
rest till she had sought him out. He was a 
Moravian ; and, with the simplicity which is 
characteristic of the sect, he preached Christ 
to her, — the crucified and risen One, — not in 
the words that man's wisdom teacheth, but with 
the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 
She felt that she was loved, and in place of 
the avenging God before whom she trem- 
bled, she saw Him who died for sinners. 
With all the fervor of a forgiven sinner, she 



IO 



Christian Experience. 



loved Him who first loved her. After tasting 
of the peace of God among the Moravians, 
she constantly associated with these simple 
Christians, and found among them what she 
could not find amidst the most brilliant circles 
of the world. She wrote to her friend, "O, 
my dear Armand, pray, pray like a child, if 
you are not yet in this blessed state; pray and 
entreat for this mercy which God grants us for 
the sake of his dear Son's love. It will sus- 
tain you, and make you feel that man can be 
happy neither in this world nor in the next 
without the faith that salvation is only to be 
had through Him. Religious truth is most 
simple and sublime; but human pride prefers 
reliance upon its wisdom to humbling itself: and 
how can man comprehend everything? r Ask, 
and it shall be given you,' says the Saviour; 
r Seek, and ye shall find.' Pray with an hon- 
est heart, and everything will become clear 
to you." 

Sunday Magazine. 



Christian Experience. 



ii 



POOR child of sin and woe, 
Now listen to thy Father's pleading voice ; 
No longer need'st thou go 

Without a friend to bid thy heart rejoice. 

I know thou canst not rest 
Until thou art from guilt and sorrow free ; 

Earth cannot make thee blest ; 
Come, bring thy suffering, bleeding heart to Me. 

How often, in the hour 
Of weariness, would I have succored thee ! 

But thou didst spurn the power, 
And scorn the heart that loved so tenderly. 

Oh, what on earth appears 
To comfort thy distress and heal thy grief, 

To dry thy bitter tears, 
And offer thy poor sinking soul relief? 

Thy life of sin has been 
A toilsome path, without one cheering ray ; 

Now on thy Father lean, 
And He will guide thee in a better way. 



12 



Christian Experience. 



Come, leave the desert land, 
And all the husks on which thy soul has fed, 

And trust the faithful Hand 
That offers thee a feast of living Bread. 

O sinner, 'tis the voice 
Of One who long has loved and pitied thee. 

He would thy heart rejoice, 
And set thee from all sin and suffering free. 

Oh, canst thou turn away? 
It is thy Father that invites thee near. 

Nay, sinner, weep and pray ; 
And Heaven shall hail the penitential tear ! 

Eliza F. Morris. 

T THEN you read books upon the subject, 



* ▼ you see a certain process assigned to a 
conversion, and in such a confident and authori- 
tative way, too, that you are apt to conceive that 
this is the very process, and that there can be 
no other. I compare it with my own history, 
and my own recollections, and I am apt to be 
alarmed at the want of correspondence in a 




Christian Experience. 



good many particulars. Scott's " Force of 
Truth " is an example ; Doddridge's " Rise and 
Progress of Religion in the Soul," another; 
and last, though not least, the "Pilgrim's 
Progress." I pronounce them all to be ex- 
cellent, and that there are many exemplifica- 
tions, as they describe. But the process is not 
authoritative, nor is it universal. The Spirit 
taketh its own way with each individual, and 
you know it only by its fruits. I cannot say 
of myself that I ever felt a state of mind cor- 
responding to John Bunyan's Slough of De- 
spond. Indeed, I blame myself most sincerely, 
that I cannot excite in my heart a high enough 
conception of sin in all its malignity. I hope 
I have the conviction, but I cannot command 
the degree of emotion that I should like ; and 
in the hardness of a heart not so tenderly alive 
as it ought to be to the authority of my Law- 
giver, and the enormity of trampling upon 
Him, I feel how far, and very far, I am at 
this moment from "the measure of the stature 
of the perfect man in Christ Jesus our Lord." 



Christian Experience. 



Now, what am I to infer from this? — that I 
have not yet surmounted the impassable barrier 
which stands betwixt me and the gate of life? 
So one w r ould suppose from John Bunyan ; and 
so I should suppose myself, were it not for the 
kind assurance of my Saviour, whose every 
testimony is truth, and every tone is tender- 
ness. " He that believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live." This is my firm 
hold, and I will not let it go. I sicken at all 
my own imperfect preparations. I take one 
decisive and immediate step, and resign my all 
to the sufficiency of my Saviour. I feel my 
disease, and I feel that my want of alarm and 
lively, affecting conviction forms its most ob- 
stinate ingredient. I try to stir up the emo- 
tion, and feel myself harassed and distressed at 
the impotency of my own meditations. But 
why linger without the threshold, in the face 
of a warm and urgent invitation ? ff Come unto 
me." Do not think that it is your office to heal 
one part of the disease, and Christ's to heal 
the remainder. He is the Captain of your sal- 



Christian Experience. 



15 



vation, and I take Him as such. I plead His 
own promise, "Him that cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out." I come to Him 
with my heart such as it is; and I pray that 
the operation of His Spirit, and the power of 
His sanctifying faith, would make it such as it 
should be. That abhorrence of sin which I 
now feel to be in a manner dead, I hope, 
through Him strengthening me, will be made 
to quicken and revive. Repentance is the gift 
of God ; and I look to Him for the fulfilment 
of His gracious promise, that He who " hath 
given us His own Son will also with Him free- 
ly give us all things." I see that this Son is 
"exalted on high, to give repentance and the 
remission of sins," and I trust that that Being 
who has said, "Without me ye can do noth- 
ing," will enable me to " do all things in the 
name of Jesus." That very repentance which, 
in its gloomiest and most despairing form, is 
represented by some as an indispensable step 
to Jesus, I now see to be the daily and growing 
exercise of the renewed Christian — that my 



i6 



Christian Experience. 



abhorrence of sin is quickened by that very- 
faith which protects from its terrors. In the 
deep and mysterious sufferings of Christ, I 
see the dreadful testimony of Heaven against 
it, and feel that it should be the daily prayer 
of Christians that they may be enabled to put 
out from among them that hateful thing for 
which our Saviour died. 



ATHER, replenish with Thy grace 



JL This longing heart of mine ; 
Make it Thy quiet dwelling-place, 

Thy sacred, inmost shrine ! 
Forgive that oft my spirit wears 
Her time and strength in trivial cares ; 
Enfold her in Thy changeless peace, 
So she from all but Thee may cease. 

O God the Son, Thy wisdom's light 

On my dark reason pour ; 
Forgive, that things of sense and sight 

Were all her joy of yore. 



Thomas Chalmers. 




Christian Experience. 



17 



Henceforth let every thought and deed 
On Thee be fixed, from Thee proceed ; 
Draw me to Thee, for I would rise 
Above these earthly vanities ! 

O Holy Ghost, Thou fire of love, 
Enkindle with Thy flame my will ; 

Come, with Thy strength, Lord, from above, 
Help me Thy bidding to fulfil. 

Forgive that I so oft have done 

What I as sinful ought to shun ; 

Let me, with pure and quenchless fire, 

Thy favor and Thyself desire. 

Angelus. 



ELIZABETH GURNEY began to be will- 
ing to walk in the peculiar path which 
many never find. It was still but the twilight. 
She only saw men like trees walking ; but the 
way of truth was chosen, the way of the world 
was disowned, the peculiar power of a heaven- 
ly Father's love began to be felt in the heart , 
she had entered, in short, upon her mission, 
and began, under the guidance of a power 
2 



i8 



Christian Experience. 



which she did not yet understand, to prepare 
for the time when her name should be, what the 
Germans called it, " a word of beauty ," or when 
there should be associated with it 

" The freight of holy feeling which we meet 
In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales 
From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein 
they rest." 

Long after this, however, it is instructive to 
notice how she continued to commit a common 
error, — we mean, to personify Religion, and 
trust to it, as if religion were the Saviour. 
According to this view, it is religion that is to 
guide us aright ; it is religion that is to fit us 
for heaven ; it is religion, in short, that is to 
save. Not Christ and His finished work ; not 
the blood which cleanses from all sin, or the 
grace which is omnipotent ; not the divine per- 
son, Jesus — Immanuel, God with us. Some 
extract, or compound, called Religion, is to do 
what Christ alone, in His omnipotence, can 
accomplish. Misled by this fondly-cherished 
error, long did Elizabeth Gurney linger in the 



Christian Experience. 



*9 



outer court, or about the porch of the Temple, 
instead of entering by Him who is the door ; 
and perhaps in the whole range of religious 
biography there is no greater or more instruc- 
tive contrast than that which we find between 
this young woman, leaning upon religion, and 
the same person when she said, before her 
death, " Even in sleep I think the heart is lifted 
up ; it is, if I may venture to say it, living in com- 
munion with Christ — in Him. What should I 
be without Him ? " 

A marked enlargement of spirit becomes visi- 
ble from the time that she begins to see that her 
strength is treasured up in Christ. We actually 
see her sympathies expand ; we mark her step 
becomes more firm ; her joy is unspeakably 
greater from the hour that the Redeemer gets 
His place — the First, the Supreme, the Last. 
When she begins to ask her soul, about her 
twenty-eighth year, w Didst thou endeavor to 
look to Christ, who can do all things for thee?" 
when she ventures, during the same year, to 
utter, with hesitation, the words, "There is one 



20 



Christian Experience. 



remark I would make : that I believe it is 
through Christ we are saved," — we see at once 
the explanation of past weakness and of future 
success; past weakness, for where, except in 
Christ, have we strength? future success, be- 
cause in Christ w r e can more than conquer all. 
"Through heights and through depths, through 
riches and through poverty," she now prayed 
to be able to do the will of the Father ; and 
she was heard. She was blessed and made a 
blessing. 

Elizabeth Gurney, then, is now taken farther 
and farther into the pavilion of her Lord. Ex- 
perience, she says, had taught her that "Christ 
in her soul, or His saving, anointing power, 
was indeed her only hope of glory." In doing 
and in suffering she is learning to "commit her 
cause to her gracious Helper, Saviour, and Re- 
deemer, and fully to trust in Him ; " and she 
will soon be like a polished shaft for His work ! 
It is no longer a vague, impersonal power : it 
is union to the living One — such a union as 
taught her at length to say, "I am nothing; I 



Christian Experience. 



21 



have nothing ; I am poor, naked, helpless ; I 
can do nothing ; but my Saviour is everything 
— all-sufficient ; my light, my life, my joy, my 
eternal hope of glory." We need not marvel 
though such faith, employing powers and gifts 
such as this woman possessed, achieved great 
results, and spread her name as wide as the 
world is round. 

And what was the secret of her power — that 
power which operated so like a charm ? How 
did this woman succeed in taming so many civ- 
ilized savages ? how quell the riots of a prison- 
house? how bring order out of confusion? nay, 
more wondrous still, how, in one case at least, 
did she win the heart of a maniac, and pro- 
duce results which appear to be well nigh fab- 
ulous ? 

The answer is easy : She was a woman of 
faith and of prayer, and while most energetic 
in the use of means, she never regarded the 
means as the end. As her work increased, so 
did her trust in her God ; and the recorded ex- 
amples of her pleading for herself and others 



22 



Christian Experience. 



teach us, in one point of view, not to wonder 
at her success. On a review of her perilous 
position, owing to her publicity, she once ex- 
claimed, "Oh, the watchfulness required not to 
bow to man, not to seek to gratify self-love, 
but rather, in humility and godly fear, to abide 
under the humiliation of the Cross !" 

She lived under the Cross. All her gifts, all 
her aspirations, and her ardor were consecrated 
to the Crucified One, and His strength was per- 
fected in her weakness. There might be points 
in her creed, or peculiarities in her conduct, 
which all could not adopt. Granted. But her 
heart was knit to the Saviour, and that kept all 
right. She had known the abundance of riches, 
and experienced the difficulties of comparative 
privation ; she had enjoyed to the full the bless- 
edness of domestic life, and experienced some 
of its painful reverses ; she had known — we 
speak upon her own authority — the abounding 
joy of the Lord, and been in depths which well 
nigh swallowed her up ; she had experienced 
great exaltation, and as deep humiliation, among 



Christian Experience. 



23 



her fellow-mortals ; she had been in deaths oft, 
and yet had many objects of affection spared to 
her. And what was the result? She herself 
replies: "It is even that the Lord is gracious 
and very merciful ; that His compassions fail 
not, but are renewed every morning." He 
held her up, and she was strong ; He blessed, 
and she conquered. Her life is like a deep- 
toned hosanna to Him who always causes His 
people to triumph. 

We should present a very faulty portrait of 
Mrs. Fry, did we neglect to allude more em- 
phatically than we have yet done to her ex- 
traordinary habits of prayer. Her earnestness, 
her pathos, and fulness in supplication were 
such, that she appeared as if she had been 
grasping Omnipotence ; and how could she 
but prosper? One example must suffice: "Be 
pleased to help Thy unworthy servant," she 
prays, "and preserve her from the many snares 
of the enemy ; let not the spirit of the world, 
or its applause, ever again entangle her, nor 
the reproach of any — not even of the good — 



2 4 



Christian Experience. 



unduly discourage her ; but let her be increas- 
ingly Thine own, and at all times, at all seasons, 
and in every place, by whomsoever surrounded, 
give unto Thee the glory due unto Thy name, 
and worship Thee in the beauty of holiness ; 
and let neither heights nor depths, life nor 
death, nor any other thing, ever separate her 
from Thy love ; but enable her, O Lord, to 
glorify Thy great and ever-excellent name, 
with Thy beloved Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord." 
That is the spirit which makes man's life sub- 
lime ; that is the spirit which made Mrs. Fry 
so distinguished among the daughters of the 
fallen Adam, and which guided her to a place 
in glory, among the starry ones forever. 

W. H. TWEEDIE. 



O SAVIOUR, may we never rest 
Till Thou art formed within ; 
Till Thou hast calmed our troubled breast, 
And crushed the power of sin. 



Christian Experience. 



25 



Oh, may we gaze upon Thy cross 

Until the wondrous sight 
Makes earthly treasures seem but dross, 

And earthly sorrows light ; — 

Until, released from carnal ties, 

Our spirit upward springs, 
And sees true peace above the skies, 

True joy in heavenly things. 

There, as we gaze, may we become 

United, Lord, to Thee ; 
And in a fairer, happier home, 

Xhy perfect beauty see. 

W. H. Bathurst. 



IT will be well to remember — lest we should 
be needlessly discouraged, lest we should 
be ungrateful through ignorance — that Chris- 
tian fruitfulness is a manifold and various thing. 
It is not all of one kind. One life is not meant 
to be exactly like another life. Each is cast in 
its own type ; and when the life is cast, the 
type, or mould, as has been said, is broken. Of 



26 



Christian Experience. 



course it is broken, because it was composed in 
part of circumstances which never were before, 
nor ever can be again. Let each "planted" 
soul rejoice to feel rooted in Him ! And then 
let each grow freely according to His will, not 
fearing, but gladly daring to branch, and blos- 
som, and fructify, according to the law of indi- 
vidual life. The lily, the olive tree, the corn, 
the vine, the cedar, — all these are growing in 
God's garden, and there are room and dew for 
them all. The utilitarian Christian w T ould say, 
w The lily ! we cannot have that here ; 'tis only 
a thing of beauty, as fleeting as it is fair. It 
gives little smell, it yields no fruit. It must be 
removed to make room for the corn." c * Not 
so," saith the great Husbandman ; " let the lily 
grow : it blooms for me. The beauty of that 
fair and delicate life is my beauty. These 
gentle ones, who cannot speak much, who 
cannot work much for me, who cannot endure 
much hardness, and who are constitutionally 
and by condition ill prepared to meet many of 
the roughnesses of life in my service, can yet 



I 



Christian Exferience. 



27 



live truly to me in the places where they grow. 
Those parts of the garden are sheltered. I 
have planted them there, and there I will visit 
and protect them. Come, behold the lilies, 
how they grow ! for Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these !" And the 
tasteful and delicate Christian, coming up to 
the cedar, would say, " That cannot be here ! 
It might adorn the wild wastes of nature, 
but it is not fit for the enclosure of grace. 
We must, at least, if it continues, lop off its 
branches, and cut away some of its roots, and 
try to soften its stony fibre, and teach it to grow 
more tenderly!" "Not so," again saith the 
great Husbandman; "I have room for the 
cedar too, soil for its roots, air for its highest 
branches, and uses for its hardness, and time 
to spare from immeasurable eternity for its 
thousand years of life. Let those rough, hard 
ones, who cannot shine in gentleness, who can- 
not weep in sympathy, who cannot yield in 
love, who, following the bent of their nature, 
can only grow up into strength, — let them 



28 



Christian Experience. 



grow, let them vanquish the storms, and pass 
through the seasons of human life with but 
little visible change ; let them flourish like palm 
trees, let them grow like the cedars in Leba- 
non ; and the corn, and the vine, and the olive 
tree, each according to its nature, and yet all 
under the influence of grace. I have planted, 
and I will keep them all. I will be as the dew 
unto Israel." We are not only at liberty, but 
it is our duty, to put aside unused, models and 
plans of life and usefulness which are thrust 
on us by others. But if we do this in a spirit 
of loyalty to the Master, we shall be the more 
anxious to grow in what is to us the true "grace 
and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour." And 
if w r e are thus true to Him, — watchful, respon- 
sive, receptive, communicative, ready, — then 
will it matter but little in what department of 
the vegetable kingdom we find the best type 
and symbol of our life, — whether we are like 
the lily in its beauty, the olive tree in its green- 
ness, the vine with its clusters, the corn with its 
bounteous burden, or the cedar with its shaggy 



Christian Experience. 



29 



strength — the text will shed its benediction on 
us all. Our gracious God "will be as the dew 

unto Israel." . „ 

Alex. Raleigh. 



" T TALF feeling our own weakness, 
-L JL We place our hands in Thine ; 
Knowing but half our darkness, 
We ask for light divine. 

" Then, when Thy strong arm holds us, 
Our weakness most we feel, 
And Thy love-light around us 
Our darkness doth reveal. 

" Too oft, when faithless doub tings 
Around our spirits press, 
We cry, ' Can hands so feeble 
Grasp such almightiness ? ' 

" While thus we doubt and tremble, 
Our hold still looser grows ; 
While on our darkness gazing, 
Vainly Thy radiance glows. 



3° 



Christian Exj>e7'ience. 



" Oh, cheer us with Thy brightness, 
And guide us by Thy hand ; 
In Thy light teach us light to see, 
In Thy strength strong to stand. 

" Then, though our hands be feeble, 
If they but touch Thine arm, 
Thy light and power shall lead us, 
And keep us strong and calm." 



IF, then, both in the works of God and in 
the Word of God we find that variety in 
unity is the prevailing law, shall we not expect 
to find the same feature in the church of God, 
which, quite as much as nature, quite as much 
as Scripture, is His workmanship, created anew 
"in Christ Jesus unto good works"? And this 
we do find. The members of the apostolic 
church had various gifts, the phenomena of 
which were different, some consisting in speak- 
ing with tongues, some in healing the sick, but 
all the results of the agency of one Spirit, 



Christian Experience. 



3i 



and all working together for the glory of one 
Saviour. But it may be said that the church 
of modern times is not furnished with the same 
organization as the early church ; that extraor- 
dinary and miraculous endowments have alto- 
gether ceased. This is true ; but it is true also 
that all these supernatural gifts rested on a nat- 
ural basis, had something in the natural endow- 
ments of the possessor's mind corresponding to 
them, and serving as the nucleus for them. 
Thus, for example, corresponding to the gift 
of tongues, we find in some persons a great 
facility of acquiring languages ; corresponding 
to the gift of prophecy, w r e find in others a 
natural gift of high and fervid eloquence ; 
some persons, even nowadays, — though by 
no means original or brilliant, — have such a 
wonderful art of imparting what they know, 
that we can hardly be said to have lost the gift 
of teaching ; others are admirably adapted for 
government — for the control of other wills, 
and the organization of philanthropic schemes ; 
while even the gift of miracles itself — the most 



32 



Christian Experience. 



supernatural of all- — rests on the power of mind 
over matter ; of which power we have exempli- 
fications in a natural way nowadays. 

But, even putting out of the question the ca- 
pacities and endowments of the human mind, 
in which we find a variety as great as in the 
miraculous gifts, this we may certainly say — 
that the character and moral temperament of 
each individual Christian are different from those 
of his neighbor. So it was of old, and so it is 
still. In the notices of the apostles, and other 
earlv believers, God has sketched for us not 
only edifying pieces of biography, but proto- 
types of all Christians to the end of time. 
Thus St. John represents the contemplative 
and studious disciple. No single miracle is 
ever recorded as having been wrought by him ; 
and in the outward spread of the gospel, al- 
though no doubt he did his work, he is not 
nearly so prominent a figure as St. Peter, 
and does not for a moment reach the world- 
wide celebrity of St. Paul. Very thoughtful 
men, who live much with themselves, are by 



Christian Experience. 33 



no means so influential with others as those 
who, vividly apprehending certain simple top- 
ics, go forth to proclaim them, without any 
profound reflection upon them, St. Peter gov- 
erns with a firm hand, and w T ith the now 
chastened and disciplined will which belongs 
to an impetuous temper ; he is the great bul- 
wark and rock of the church, breasting its 
perils and responsibilities gallantly, before St. 
Paul appears ; Apollos is an eloquent declaim- 
er, who blends to the best effect his knowledge 
of the Greek rhetoric with that higher knowl- 
edge in respect of which he is said to have 
been w mighty in the Scriptures ; " Barnabas 
sheds around him, wherever he goes, the quiet, 
healing influence of a man felt to be good and 
full of faith ; he has a still small voice of con- 
solation for those upon whom the hand of God 
is heavy ; Timothy has imbibed the lessons of 
piety with his mother's milk, and, being trained 
up as a child in the way he should go, has not 
departed from it as a young man ; but he is 
somewhat timid and pliable, and exceedingly 
3 



34 



Ch ristian Expert en cc . 



apt to be moulded by a superior will ; while 
Paul, in powers of physical and mental endur- 
ance, in the expansiveness of his affections, in 
his vivid appreciation of his own remarkable 
experience, is God's chiefest instrument for the 
diffusion of the glad tidings. These, if I may 
so express it, are some of the moulds in which 
Christian character was cast when Christianity 
first appeared, and in which we may expect 
that it will continue to be cast nowadavs. 

The types are strong types; still, although 
modern days may show somewhat feebler im- 
pressions of them, they are still the same, al- 
though less marked. 

Now, in what has been said there is wrapped 
up both comfort for ourselves and a lesson of 
large charity towards others. 

Let us not distress ourselves, either that we 
were not brought to God, or that we are not 
now serving God, in the same way as some 
others, who seem to be models of a very ex- 
emplary and exalted piety. Certain preach- 
ers, and still more, certain writers of religious 



Christicm Experience. 



35 



books, construct a sort of Procrustean frame- 
work as a model for all classes of real 
conversion, and intimate that, if you cannot 
accommodate your own experience to that 
stiff frame, — if you have never felt paroxysms 
of alarm at the threatenings of the law, or par- 
oxysms of ecstasy at the announcements of the 
gospel, — your heart is not at this moment right 
with God. Nothing can be more erroneous phi- 
losophically, or more untrue scripturally. God's 
ways of influencing the human mind for good 
vary infinitely, — vary, first, with the original 
character of the mind on which the Holy Ghost 
has to operate ; and, secondly, with the ac- 
quired shape which that mind has taken from 
the circumstances in which it has been thrown, 
and from its whole history and experience. On 
the same page of Scripture there is the record 
of two most remarkable conversions, as differ- 
ent from each other as any two processes of 
mind, leading to the same result, can by possi- 
bility be. Lydia, the purple-seller of Thyatira, 
became a Christian through the gentle opening 



36 



Christian Experience. 



of the heart, as by the quiet river-side she at- 
tended to the things which were spoken by 
Paul. The Philippian jailer is converted, on 
the other hand, in a manner such as might be 
expected from the previous habits of ignorance 
and vice in which, we may reasonably suppose, 
he had been sunk. He is shaken with strong 
alarm, as if over the pit of hell, (nothing else 
would have broken bonds so firmly riveted,) 
and w he called for a light, and sprang in, and 
came trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be 
saved?" Lydia experienced no such alarm, 
but only a gentle opening of the heart, peace- 
ful as the undulations of the river ; yet was she 
none the less a disciple of our Lord, and none 
the less dear to Him. The critical, all-impor- 
tant question for all of us is, whether we are 
indeed Christ's at present, and are following 
the lead of His Spirit; if so, how we were 
brought to Him, — whether by the quiet draw- 
ings of gratitude and love, or by the gradual 
growth of reflectiveness, and our experience 



Christian Experience. 



37 



of life's hollo wness, or by the trepidations of 
alarm, — is but of little moment. 

And then, again, as to our method of serving 
Him. This must depend on our capacities, our 
endowments, the position which we providen- 
tially occupy, and the opportunities which it 
gives us. It may not be a high work, or a 
widely-influential work, which we are doing 
for God ;• but then it may not be a high work, 
or a widely-influential work, to which He has 
called us. We may\ of course, be working 
belovj the measure of the gift w r hich God has 
distributed to us, leaving the talent which our 
Master left with us unimproved, and not put- 
ting it out to the exchangers, so that at His 
coming He may receive His own with usury. 
That is a point to be looked to and carefully 
considered. But the mere brilliancy of the 
position occupied by another, or the brilliancy 
of the gifts which qualify him for that position, 
should never make us indulge in an unquiet 
longing to be or to do what God has not fitted 
us for, and which, therefore, He will never 



38 



Christian Experience. 



require from us. If not called, and not fitted, 
(and the fitness is the evidence of the call,) we 
could not undertake such a thing without a 
most censurable presumption. f * I would un- 
dertake to govern a hundred empires," said 
Dr. Payson, "if God called me to it; but I 
would not undertake to govern a hundred 
sheep unless He called me." 

A lesson of large charity to others- is to be 
learned from what has been said. We ought, 
if rightly minded, to rejoice in the exuberance 
and variety of the spiritual gifts possessed by 
Christians, just as we delight in the rich varie- 
ty of nature, or in that of the Word of God. 
There are many. lines of thought in religion, 
many forms which practical and personal piety 
takes, although, of course, they are all animat- 
ed by the same essential principles. St. John 
and St. Paul were both equally devoted to 
the cause and person of our Lord : yet no two 
men ever existed who manifested this devotion 
in shapes more different. Both these members 
held of the Head by a living union, but they 



Christian Experience. 



39 



discharged for the Head functions altogether 
different. Let us not conceive of all genuine 
religion as moving in one groove of feeling and 
practice, and refuse to acknowledge any man 
as a Christian because he does not run upon 
our own particular groove. It seems to be 
God's plan and purpose, that each individual 
Christian should exhibit, in the peculiarity of 
his circumstances, education, moral tempera- 
ment, and mental endowments, a new speci- 
men of redeeming love and grace. By various 
discipline here He fits and polishes each living 
stone for the place which it is destined to occu- 
py in the spiritual temple ; and when all the 
stones are made ready, He will build them to- 
gether each into his place, and exhibit to men 
and angels their perfect unity. 



ACII form of loveliness, each fair creation, 



J — -/ Hath yet a type more true and brighter far, 
And we must trace in all the dim relation, 

And what they might be, learn from what they are. 



E. M. Goulburn. 




4° 



Christian Experience. 



Thus every character, whate'er its sweetness, 

Is but a fruit all blighted and unripe, 
Still ever striving towards its own completeness, 

Still ever yearning towards its highest type. 

And only as we know and love them duly, 
As buds and promise of a fairer growth, 

Shall we learn how to weigh and prize them truly, 
And trace the true unto the highest truth. 

Though lost and fallen is our perfect being, 

Its beauty 'mid its ruins we may see ; 
And strive we still, the far completeness seeing, 

To reach once more the highest we can be. 

And strive we, following in our love and duty, 
Him who doth noblest, truest, purest shine, 

Who raised our human to its highest beauty, 
By blending with it His own bright divine. 

L. 

DOES your soul regard earthly things as 
the highest, and the business which re- 
lates to them as your weightiest employment? 
Then is your soul like the waves of the sea, 



Christian Experience. 



4 1 



which are driven and blown by the wind ; it 
is given up to eternal disquiet and transient 
change. For manifold and varied are earthly- 
things, and whoever gives himself up to their 
dominion, his soul is dragged hither and thith- 
er, in all directions, by hope and fear, by joy 
and sorrow, by desire for gain and by pain at 
loss. And how should the grace of the Lord 
and His peace make their dwelling in such 
a disturbed soul? O my friends, whatever 
earthly calling may be allotted to us, — how- 
ever spiritual in its functions, however bless- 
ed in its effects, — if its employments drive 
us forward in breathless haste upon life's 
path ; if we think that we can never find time 
to stand still and to think where we are and 
whither we will go, and to reflect on the 
heavenly and eternal concerns of our immortal 
souls ; if prayer has lost its power, and the 
divine word its charm for us, — then we have 
cast away our life upon a fearful error, upon 
a fleeting dream ; then are we, with all our 
apparent richness in bodily and spiritual goods, 



4 2 



Christian Exj>e7'ience. 



really poor — very poor. We have, like Mar- 
tha, much care and trouble ; but the highest 
good, which alone gives to our life its worth 
and significance, is wanting. 

Julius Muller. 



" T3E faithful unto death, and I will give 
-L* thee a crown of life." For he that is 
warm to-day and cold to-morrow, zealous in 
his resolution and weary in his practices, fierce 
in the beginning and slack and easy in his 
progress, hath not yet well chosen what side 
he will be of; he sees not reason enough for 
religion, and he hath not confidence enough 
for its contrary ; and therefore he is, as St. 
James calls him, "of a doubtful mind." For 
religion is worth as much to-day as it was 
yesterday, and that cannot change, though we 
do ; and if we do, we have left God : and 
whither he can go that goes from God, his 
own sorrows will soon enough instruct him. 
This fire must never go out, but it must be 



Christian Experience. 



like the fire of heaven ; it must shine like the 
stars ; though sometimes covered with a cloud, 
or obscured by a greater light, yet they dwell 
forever in their orbs, and walk in their circles, 
and observe their circumstances, but go not out 
by day nor night, and set not when kings die, 
nor are extinguished when nations change their 
government. So must the zeal of a Christian 
be a constant incentive of his duty ; and though 
sometimes his hand is drawn back by violence 
or need, and his prayers shortened by the im- 
portunity of business, and some parts omitted 
by necessities and just compliances, yet still the 
fire is kept alive ; it burns within when the light 
breaks not forth, and is eternal as the orb of 
fire or the embers of the altar of incense. 

Jeremy Taylor. 



SAID I not so — that I would sin no more ? 
Witness, my God, I did ; 
Yet I am run again upon the score : 
My faults cannot be hid. 



44 



Christian Experience. 



What shall I do ? — Make vows and break them still ? 

'Twill be but labor lost ; 
My good cannot prevail against mine ill : 

The business will be crost. 

Oh, say not so ; thou canst not tell what strength 
Thy God may give thee at the length. 

Renew thy vows, and if thou keep the last, 
Thy God will pardon all that's past. 

Vow while thou canst ; while thou canst vow, thou 
mayst 

Perhaps perform it, when thou thinkest least. 

Thy God hath not denied thee all, 
Whilst He permits thee but to call. 
Call to thy God for grace to keep 
Thy vows ; and if thou break them, weep. 
Weep for thy broken vows, and vow again : 
Vows made with tears cannot be still in vain. 
Then once again 
I vow to mend my ways ; 

Lord, say Amen, 
And Thine be all the praise. 

George Herbert. 



Christian Experience. 



45 



NOWLEDGE of God's will is not had at 



JL^. once, cases of conscience are not settled 
at once, nor is the ability to overcome derived 
at once. The conversion is the new birth ; but 
to be born is not to be the man complete in 
feature and in mind, w T hich groweth out of 
knowledge, experience, discipline of youth, 
observation of life, and the thousand appointed 
steps between the almost unconscious babe and 
the accomplished man. Even so the new birth 
is but the first germ of religion in the soul, 
which hath to be cherished, nursed, guarded, 
trained, and taught by methods and means of 
grace as manifold as natural strength is reared 
by. Therefore, so that your souls are longing 
after God, your ears drinking in His counsel, 
your feet moving — though faint, still moving 
— in the path, be of good cheer; go on and 
prosper. Nay, so that you are losing conceit 
of sin by reason of better conceptions, and 
waxing in fear of future issues, and medi- 
tating your mortality more, it is symptomatic 




4 6 



Christian Experience. 



of good ; go on and prosper. Despair not be- 
cause you are not perfect, neither turn back 
because you frequently fall. 

And, ye advanced Christians, do not despise 
this day of small things in a younger brother, 
neither go to impose on him all your burdens, 
nor to minister to him the strongest meat which 
you feed on ; but give God-speed to any endeav- 
or after good, however small. His very aspira- 
tions despise not, his imperfections do not sorely 
rebuke. Strengthen the hands that hang down, 
and the feeble knees confirm. Strengthen by 
encouragement and support ; do not by rebuke 
and censure drive him to distraction. 

Edward Irving. 

PERFECTION is our mark: yet never 
will the aim be so true and steady as to 
strike the golden centre. Perfection of char- 
acter, yet even to the dying hour, it will be 
but this : " I count not myself to have appre- 
hended." Christian life is like those questions 
in mathematics which never can be exactly 



Christian Experience. 



47 



answered. All you attain is an approximation 
to the truth. You may labor on for years and 
never reach it ; yet your labor is not in vain. 
Every figure you add makes the fraction nearer 
than the last to the million millionth ; and so it 
is with holiness. Christ is our mark — the 
perfect standard of God in Christ. But be as 
holy as you will, there is a step nearer, and 
another, and another, and so infinitely on. 

Perfection is being, not doing ; it is not to 
effect an act, but to achieve a character. If 
the aim of life were to do something, then, as 
in an earthly business, except in doing this one 
thing, the business would be at a stand-still. 
The student is not doing the one thing of stu- 
dent-life when he has ceased to think or read. 
The laborer leaves his work undone when the 
spade is not in his hand, and he sits beneath 
the hedge to rest. But in Christian life, every 
moment and every act is an opportunity for 
doing the one thing of becoming Christ-like. 
Every day is full of a most impressive expe- 
rience. Every temptation to evil temper which 



4 8 



Christian Experience. 



can assail us to-day will be an opportunity to 
decide the question whether we shall gain the 
calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we 
shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation 
of the world. Nay, the very vicissitudes of 
the seasons, day and night, heat and cold, 
affecting us variably, and producing exhilara- 
tion or depression, are so contrived as to con- 
duce towards the being which we become, and 
decide whether we shall be masters of our- 
selves, or whether we shall be swept at the 
mercy of accident and circumstance, miserably 
susceptible of merely outward influences. In- 
finite as are the varieties of life, so manifold 
are the paths to saintly character ; and he who 
has not found out how, directly or indirectly, to 
make everything converge towards his soul's 
sanctification, has as yet missed the meaning 
of his life. 

Christian progress is only possible in Christ. 
It is a very lofty thing to be a Christian ; for a 
Christian is a man who is restoring God's like- 
ness to his character ; and therefore the apostle 



I 



Christian Experience* 



49 



calls it here a high calling. High as heaven 
is the calling wherewith we are called. But 
this very height makes it seem impracticable. 
It is natural to say, All that was well enough 
for one so transcendently gifted as Paul to hope 
for; but I am no gifted man, I have no iron 
strength of mind, I have no sanguine hopeful- 
ness of character, I am disposed to look on the 
dark side of things, I am undetermined, weak, 
vacillating ; and then I have a whole army of 
passions and follies to contend with. We have 
to remind such men of one thing they have for- 
gotten. It is the high calling of God, if you 
will ; but it is the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. What the world calls virtue, is a name 
and a dream, without Christ. The foundation 
of all human excellence must be laid deep in 
the blood of the Redeemer's cross, and in the 
power of His resurrection. First, let a man 
know that all his past is wrong and sinful ; 
then let him fix his eye on the love of God in 
Christ loving him, even him, the guilty one. 
Is there no strength in that? no power in the 

4 



Christian Experience. 



knowledge that all that is gone by is gone, and 
that a fresh, clear future is open? It is not the 
progress of virtue that God asks for, but prog- 
ress in saintliness, empowered by hope and 

love ' F. W. Robertson. 

SHALL these feet of mine, delaying, 
Still in ways of sin be found, 
Braving snares, and madly straying 
On the world's bewitching ground? 

No, I was not born to trifle 

Life away in dreams or sin ; 
No. I must not, dare not, stifle 

Longings such as these within. 

Swiftly moving, upward, onward, 
Let my soul in faith be borne ; 

Calmly gazing, skyward, sunward, 
Let my eye unshrinking turn. 

Where the Cross. God's love revealing, 

Sets the fettered spirit free, 
Where it sheds its wondrous healing, 

There, my soul, thy rest shall be. 



Christian Experience. 



5i 



Then no longer, idly dreaming, 
Shall I fling my years away, 

But, each precious hour redeeming, 
Wait for the eternal day. 



H. Bonar. 



HE salvation of the soul implies that a 



J- man is brought into harmony with him- 
self. His powers are no longer in conflict. A 
perpetual calm has been breathed over them. 
A peace which passeth all understanding has 
taken the place of an unnatural conflict. Rea- 
son and conscience have resumed their lost 
honors, and the fires of unrestrained passion 
have gone out forever. In recovering the 
image of its Maker, the soul enjoys a sweet 
and holy fellowship with itself, a serene com- 
posure, which is only the harbinger of the per- 
fect peace of heaven. 

The recovery of the soul implies, also, its 
admission into the society of all which is noble 
and good. The saints on earth and all the 
dead but one communion make. 




52 



Christian Experience. 



It is not only encompassed by a great cloud 
of witnesses, — it is itself one of these witnesses. 
It has become a part of the great common- 
wealth of the living and the blessed dead. 
When it partakes of the spirit of angels, it 
shares in their sweet ministries of grace, and 
will triumph evermore in their blissful society. 
It is drawn upward, not alone by its own im- 
pulses, or by the power of its Redeemer's arm, 
but by the consciousness of its glorious com- 
panionship, by the encouraging voices which 
greet the still struggling spirit. 

Once more, the salvation of the soul im- 
plies that it is brought into a state of perpetual 
thankfulness to its Redeemer. In its endless 
progress, this, probably, is its absorbing motive 
— gratitude to Him to whom it owes its de- 
liverance, admiration of His power and love. 
This awakens its profoundest thought and its 
loudest anthem. It has become a part of its 
consciousness, as indestructible as its own glo- 
rified nature. 

A few years ago there lived a pagan, who 



Christian Experience. 53 



was called the Napoleon of South Africa. He 
was a man of talent, but seemed to be the in- 
carnation of evil. Travellers were more afraid 
of meeting him than of all the other dangers to 
which they were exposed. At length he be- 
came such a terror for a great distance around, 
that a large sum was offered to any individual 
who would destroy him. Yet, when the Sa- 
viour passed that way, by His word and His 
Spirit, this ferocious savage put on the gentle- 
ness of the lamb. He became as docile and as 
quiet as a little child ; for many years the bond 
and centre of union to British subjects, as well 
as to the native tribes, a pattern of meekness, 
of Christian zeal, and of a noble disinterested- 
ness. His thankfulness to the Saviour was ex- 
pressed a thousand times, and in the simplest 
and most affecting terms. All who saw him, 
in life and in death, took knowledge of him that 
he had been with Jesus. 

About two hundred years ago there lived at 
Paris an individual of the highest order of 
genius, who touched every subject which he 



54 



Christian JExfte?'ience. 



undertook with the hand of a master — one of 
the few men equally at home in moral and 
mathematical truth ; one of the few men the 
summer of whose life fully corresponded to 
the brilliant promises of spring. And yet that 
which struck every beholder was his calm" 
resignation under intense and long-continued 
pain ; the child-like simplicity of his character, 
humble and submissive as an infant ; and his 
counting all things loss — earthly honors in 
their most attractive forms ■ — for the sake of 
Christ. Few have ever had on earth so much 
of the love and spotless purity of heaven as the 
illustrious Pascal. 

Here, now, are two men at the two extremes 
of society, — a philosopher of noble descent, in 
the most refined capital of Europe, and a poor 
savage in the wilds of Africa, — both alike in 
moral character, both distinguished by the 
same sweet simplicity and affectionate love to 
the Redeemer. Was there not joy among the 
angels at their conversion? Yes, more than 
that : in the Saviour's heart there was joy un- 



Christian Experience. 



55 



utterable as He saw such monuments of the 
power of His grace, such fruits of His suffer- 
ing on the cross. Count up, now, the almost 
countless numbers who have stood in the long 
distance between the uncultivated pagan and 
the Pascals and Newtons of Europe, in every 
order of intellect, in every variety of outward 
condition. Estimate the throngs who shall 
grace the Saviour's triumph when the earth 
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
and behold the fulfilment of the inspired prom- 
ise, " He shall see of the travail of His soul and 
shall be satisfied." Measure, if you can, the 
tides of joy which shall flow through the Re- 
deemer's breast forever. 

B. B. Edwards. 



BRIGHT was the guiding star that led, 
With mild, benignant ray, 
The Gentiles to the lowly shed 
Where the Redeemer lay. 



56 



Christian Exj>e7'ience. 



But lo ! a brighter, clearer light 

Now points to His abode ; 
It shines through sin and sorrow's night, 

To guide us to our God. 

Oh, haste to follow where it leads, 

The gracious call obey, 
Be rugged wilds or flowery meads 

The Christian's destined way. 

Oh, gladly tread the narrow path, 
While light and grace are given. 

Who meekly follow Christ on earth 
Shall reign with Him in heaven. 



"E should endeavor not to be distressed 



▼ w about anything, but to take every event 
for the best. I apprehend this to be a duty, 
and the neglect of it to be a sin. For, in truth, 
the reason why sin is sin, is merely because it 
is contrary to the will of God. If, therefore, 
the essence of sin consists in having a will con- 



Harriet Auber. 




Christian Experience. 



57 



tradictory to the known will of God, it seems 
clear to me, that when He discovers His will 
to us by events, we sin if we do not conform 
ourselves to it. 

True piety, which only receives its comple- 
tion in heaven, is, nevertheless, so replete w T ith 
consolations, that they fill its beginning, its 
progress, and its crown. It is a light so re- 
splendent, that it brightens everything which 
belongs to it. If some grief be intermixed 
with it, especially at its commencement, this 
proceeds not from ourselves, and not from vir- 
tue ; for it is not the effect of that piety which 
has been begun in us, but of that impiety which 
still remains. Root out impiety, and your joy 
will be unalloyed. Let us not, therefore, as- 
cribe this sadness to devotion, but to ourselves ; 
and let us only expect relief in our own sancti- 
fication. 

What is past ought to give us no uneasiness, 
except that of regret for our faults. And what 
is to come ought still less to affect us, because 
it is nothing with regard to us now, and per- 



58 



Christian Experience. 



haps we shall never live to see it. The present 
is the only time which is properly ours ; and 
we ought to use this in conformity to the will 
of God. To this our thoughts should be prin- 
cipally directed. Yet the world is generally so 
restless, that men scarcely ever think of the 
present time, and the instant they are now 
actually living, but of those in which they are 
to live ; so that we are always in a disposition 
to live in future, but never to live now. Our 
Lord hath not chosen that our foresight should 
extend beyond the day that is present. These 
are the limits which He requires us to observe, 
both for the sake of our salvation and for our 
own repose. 

Pascal. 



DAY by day the manna fell ; 
Oh, to learn this lesson well ! 
Still by constant mercy fed, 

Give us, Lord, our daily bread. 



Christian Experience. 



59 



" Day by day," the promise reads ; 

Daily strength for daily needs : 
Cast foreboding fears away ; 

Take the manna of to-day ! 

Lord, our times are in Thy hand ; 

All our sanguine hopes have planned 
To Thy wisdom we resign, 

And would mould our wills to Thine. 

Thou our daily task shalt give ; 

Day by day to Thee we live ; 
So shall added years fulfil 

Not our own, our Father's will. 

Oh, to live exempt from care, 

By the energy of prayer, 
Strong in faith, with mind subdued, 

Glowing yet with gratitude ! 

CONDER. 



K T THINK the pain you have recently felt, 
J- dear Anna, is meant to reveal to you that 
a separate, independent will — a will unsub- 
dued to God's will — still lives within you. 



60 Christian Experience. 



" I know you have long since received the 
will of God as your law, and have made obe- 
dience to those written commands in which His 
will is expressed the only rule of your life : 
without some such submission of your own 
natural will as this implies, you could never 
have become a true servant of God. But God 
teaches His faithful servants ever deeper and 
deeper lessons concerning the surrender of the 
will, and in this way He prepares His people 
for the communication of that abundance of 
peace which it is His good pleasure to bestow 
upon them. When God is teaching us lessons 
on this subject, dear Anna, we begin to see 
that circumstances , as well as commands, are 
but an expression of His will. We then feel 
that no outward thing can really hinder us. A 
vexatious interruption to duty we perceive to 
be a contradiction in terms. If we have ever 
formed to ourselves an ideal of moral dignity 
and beauty, after which we have sought to 
model our life, and which we have thus de- 
sired to realize for its own sake, and without 



Christian Experience. 61 



reference to the will of God for us, — then we 
shall surely find ourselves disappointed, balked, 
and baffled. Let us thank God and take cour- 
age when it is so with us ; let us take the full 
comfort of this fact — that we are f servants,' 
and have really no work of our own to do — 
nothing which we are striving to accomplish on 
our own account. We have no selfish schemes 
which circumstances may thwart, we acknowl- 
edge no selfish hopes which they may destroy, 
It is blessedness indeed to have accepted for 
our only portion that His will should be done 
in us, and for us, and by us, forever !" 

Anna, or Passages from Home Life. 



JUST as God leads me I would go : 
I would not ask to choose my way ; 
Content with what He will bestow, 
Assured He will not let me stray. 
So, as He leads, my path I make, 
And step by step I gladly take — 
A child in Him confiding. 



62 



Christian Experience. 



Just as God leads, I am content ; 

I rest me calmly in His hands : 
That which He has decreed and sent, 

That which His will for me commands, 
I would that He should all fulfil, 
That I should do His gracious will, 

In living or in dying. 

Just as God leads, I all resign ; 

I trust me to my Father's will : 
When reason's rays deceptive shine, 

His counsel would I yet fulfil ; 
That which His love ordained as right, 
Before He brought me to the light, — 

My all to Him resigning. 

Just as God leads me, I abide, 

In faith, in hope, in suffering, true : 

His strength is ever by my side ; 
Can aught my hold on Him undo ? 

I hold me firm in patience, knowing 

That God my life is still bestowing, 
The best in kindness sending. 



! 



Christian Experience. 



63 



Just as God leads, I onward go, 
Oft amid thorns and briers keen ; 

God does not yet His guidance show, 
But in the end it shall be seen, 

How, by a loving Father's w T ill, 

Faithful and true He leads me still, 
My trembling footsteps guiding. 



HEN all that separated from God is 



V f taken away, — -when every inordinate 
desire has undergone the process of excision, 
so as to be reduced into its place, and to be put 
into entire position and agreement with the one 
great and overruling desire of conformity to 
God's will, — then begins the new life, in the 
higher sense of the term. The soul no longer 
possesses anything which it calls its own, but 
may rather be spoken of as a subject, and, in- 
stead of possessing, may be said to be -possessed 
by another ; God Himself comes to it, and 
dwells in it, as in His holy temple. It is not 



Lampertius. 




6 4 



Christian Experience. 



only obedient to God (which is a high state of 
grace) even when it costs considerable effort to 
render obedience, but its obedience is rendered 
in such a manner, so promptly and so lovingly, 
that God may be said to be its life. The soul 
has become nothing in itself: but it has gained 
all things out of itself Disrobed of the life 
of nature, it is clothed with the life of grace. 
It has lost the inspiration and life of the crea- 
ture, but it has gained the life of God. 

And now all that has God in it (and there is 
nothing which has not God in it, except sin) is 
its delight. The sky expands with a purer 
beauty ; the flower opens with a sweeter fra- 
grance ; in the forest and on the river's banks 
it finds food for contemplation and holy love ; 
it rejoices with those who rejoice, and weeps 
with those who weep ; it is young and buoyant 
with the child, and wise and reverent with the 
aged ; everything in human life is dear to it ; 
it pities and forgives its enemies ; like Him 
who is embodied in it, it does good to the evil 
and unthankful ; tears are dried at its approach, 



Christian Experience. 



65 



and smiles bloom like roses at the presence of 
its loveliness. 

Those who have never experienced the trans- 
formations of thoroughly sanctifying grace 
know but little of the purity, the peace, and 
the blessedness of such a soul. It has but little 
to say of itself; it has no dreams, no visions, 
no ecstasies. We mean to say, that it makes 
no account of them separate from God. It 
lives by faith, and not by sight. Believing, 
it asks nothing more. Its new life is all natu- 
ral to it — a life which lives and acts of itself, 
without calculation and without effort. It is 
humble without knowing or speaking of its 
humility; it is divinely wise without analyzing 
its wisdom ; it is full of kindness and love, ap- 
parently without any consciousness how kind 
and loving it is. It worships God even without 
formally thinking of God, because the kingdom 
of God is within it. 

Upham's Life of Madame Guy on, 

5 



66 



Christian Experience. 



" /^\ FOR a heart of calm repose, 
\^>/ Amid the world's loud roar, 
A life that like a river flows 
Along a peaceful shore ! 

" Come, Holy Spirit, still my heart 
With gentleness divine ; 
Indwelling peace Thou canst impart ; 
Oh, make that blessing mine ! 

" Above these scenes of storm and strife 
There spreads a region fair ; 
Give me to live that higher life, 
And breathe that heavenly air ! 

44 Come, Holy Spirit, breathe that peace ! 
That victory make me win ! 
Then shall my soul her conflict cease, 
And find a heaven within." 



HEAR the testimony of one w r ho for the 
best part of fourscore years had lived 
an earnest Christian life : " I have heard some 



Christian Experience. 



6 7 



say that f worlds would not tempt them back to 
tread again life's dreary waste.' Such lan- 
guage is not for me. I should not shrink from 
the proposal of repetition. c Goodness and 
mercy have followed me all the days of my 
life.' My duties have not been burdening and 
irksome. My trials have been few, compared 
with my comforts. My pleasures have been 
cheap and simple, and therefore very numer- 
ous. I have enjoyed, without satiety, the sea- 
sons and the sceneries of nature. I have 
relished the bounties of providence, using them 
with moderation and thankfulness. I have 
delighted in the means of grace ; unutterable 
have been my delights in studying and perusing 
the Scriptures. I have seldom been without 
hearing of some instance of usefulness from 
the pulpit or the press. I have a better opin- 
ion of mankind than I had when I began my 
public life." Compare the dissenting minister 
with Beau Brummell — the one taking God's 
way of it, the other always taking his own ; 
the fop always scrambling after costly enjoy- 



68 



Christian Experience. 



ments, and finding them apples of Sodom in 
his grasp ; the contented Christian avowing, 
"My pleasures have been very numerous, for 
they were cheap and simple ; " the self-centred 
exquisite leading a life of perpetual envy, and 
vindictiveness, and spleen ; the unambitious and 
cheerful man of God radiating on others his 
own bright, devout, and hopeful feelings, and 
so ending with an improved opinion of man- 
kind ; whilst the disappointed worldling finished 
off by saying that rather than save a man he 
would rescue a drowning dog. 

To dwell on high is happiness. You may 
think Mr. Jay might well be cheerful, for he 
was healthy and active, and free from all ail- 
ment. Hear, then, what Dr. Arnold says of 
his sister, long the victim of hopeless disease : 
"I never saw a more perfect instance of the 
spirit and power of love, and of a sound mind 
— intense love, almost to the annihilation of 
selfishness ; a daily martyrdom for twenty 
years, during which she adhered to her early- 
formed resolution of never talking about her- 



Christian Experience. 



6 9 



self; thoughtful about the very pins and ribbons 
of my wife's dress, about the making of a doll's 
cap for a child ; but of herself, save only as 
regarded her ripening in all goodness, wholly 
thoughtless ; enjoying everything lovely, grace- 
ful, beautiful, high-minded, whether in God's 
works or man's, with the keenest relish ; inher- 
iting the earth to the very fulness of the prom- 
ise, though never leaving her crib, nor changing 
her posture ; and preserved through the very 
valley of the shadow of death from all fear or 
impatience, or from every cloud of impaired 
reason, which might mar the beauty of Christ's 
Spirit's glorious work." 

James Hamilton. 

GOD only is the creature's home, 
Though rough and strait the road ; 
Yet nothing less can satisfy 
The love that longs for God. 

Oh, utter but the name of God 

Down in your heart of hearts, 
And see how from the world at once 

All tempting light departs. 



7o 



Christian Experience. 



A trusting heart, a yearning eye, 

Can win their way above : 
If mountains can be moved by faith, 

Is there less power in love ? 

How little of that road, my soul, 

How little hast thou gone ! 
Take heart, and let the thought of God 

Allure thee farther on. 



iROVISION is made in the Scriptures 



for meeting the peculiar sentiment which 
the Christian's conjoined faith in the unseen 
world, and ignorance of its condition, engen- 
der. And, as matter of fact, the dying ex- 
pressions of multitudes of the faithful, in every 
age, have exemplified the fitness of this pro- 
vision to the occasion. If a solemn renewal 
of repentance is proper to the hour of death, 
if an explicit and fervent challenge of the 
divine mercy is proper to it, these acts are not 
enough to impart confidence and joy, or even 



F. W. Faber. 




Christian Experience. 71 



always a settled tranquillity. The palpitating 
heart must appropriate the -personal affection 
of the Redeemer to His people. This appro- 
priation is the secret of dying. The human 
mind, when once thoroughly occupied by a be- 
nign affection, specially fixed upon its object, 
can meet any danger, can brave any dismay. 
History abounds with illustrations of this fact. 
Men, nay, women, thus animated, have for- 
gotten all fear, and carried themselves through 
fields of death as calmly as if they had none 
but an ethereal frame. If we analyze our 
emotions on any occasions of this sort, we 
shall find that if, at any time, a steady courage 
has borne us with force, and animation, and 
cheerfulness, through hours of imminent peril, 
it has been when we have had to act on behalf 
of those most dear to us, or when the welfare 
of such has depended altogether upon our con- 
duct. Even the martial courage of the field 
(if it be more than animal bravery) is consti- 
tuted on the same principle, and would be 
nothing if stripped of its affections. 



72 



Christian Experience. 



Those who would blame, as enthusiastic or 
presumptuous, the fervors and speciality of 
devout affection, such as eminent Christians 
have expressed in their dying moments, know 
nothing of Christianity beyond the bare story 
they read in the Gospels, and nothing of hu- 
man nature (or of human nature as affected by 
religion) beyond what belongs to the servile 
sentiments of a Pelagian faith (better called 
distrust). If multitudes of those who receive 
Christian burial, because they have received 
Christian baptism, die joyless, and disappear 
from the upper air as if sinking in a stagnant 
pool, it is not the fault of Christianity. Chris- 
tianity meets us where we most of all need its 
aid, and meets us, too, with the very aid we 
need. It does not tell us of the splendors of 
the invisible world, but it does far better, when, 
in four words, it informs us that to loosen from 
the shore of mortality is to be with Christ. 

This is precisely the assurance which the 
occasion demands, for it not only quickens the 
devout affections, but it fixes them on their 



Christian Experience. 



73 



object. Whoever has truly admitted the emo- 
tions peculiar to Christian faith desires nothing 
more than is conveyed in this pregnant phrase. 
All security and ail joy are comprised in the 
idea of beholding and of approaching the Son 
of God, — the Son of Man, — now exercising 
universal dominion, and especially ruling the 
world of spirits. "If I go, I will come again, 
and receive you to myself." This and some 
parallel expressions, though they have a pri- 
mary reference to a future signal event, may, 
on no very slender grounds, be interpreted as 
conveying a promise to individuals , as if the 
"Shepherd of the sheep" were wont in -person 
to meet the new-coming spirit, at its entrance 
upon the realms of peace. Be it so or not, it 
is clear that the faithful are authorized to enter- 
tain the well-defined hope — the hope of the 
heart, if the heart be indeed renewed — of 
coming, at death, into the sensible presence 
of the Saviour. What is the dread or reluc- 
tance of nature, if the Christian, in closing 
his eyes upon the world, can fix them on 



74 



Christian Experience. 



the divine Deliverer, and say, " Thou wilt 
show me the path of life"? 



OLY JESUS, every day 



And, when earthly things are past, 
Bring our ransomed souls at last 
Where they need no star to guide, 
Where no clouds Thy glory hide. 

In the heavenly country bright 
Need they no created light ; 
Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown, 
Thou its Sun which goes not down ; 
There forever may we sing 
Hallelujahs to our King ! 



T Mr. Duncon's parting with him, Mr. 



Herbert spoke to this purpose : M Sir, I 
pray you give my brother Farrer an account 
of the decaying condition of my body, and tell 
him I beg him to continue his daily prayers for 



Isaac Taylor. 



Keep us in the narrow way ; 



W. C. Dix. 




Christian Experience. 



75 



me ; and let him know that I have considered 
that God only is what he would be, and that I 
am, by His grace, become now so like Him 
as to be pleased with what pleaseth Him ; and 
tell him that I do not repine, but am pleased 
with my want of health ; and tell him my heart 
is fixed on that place where true joy is only to 
be found, and that I long to be there, and do 
wait for my appointed change with hope and 
patience." Having said this, he did, with so 
sweet a humility as seemed to exalt him, bow 
down to Mr. Duncon, and with a thoughtful 
and contented look, say to him, tf Sir, I pray 
deliver this little book to my dear brother Far- 
rer, and tell him he shall find in it a picture of 
the many spiritual conflicts that have passed 
betwixt God and my soul, before I could sub- 
ject mine to the will of Jesus my Master, in 
whose service I have now found perfect free- 
dom. Desire him to read it, and then, if he 
can think it may turn to the advantage of any 
dejected, poor soul, let it be made public; if 
not, let him burn it, for I and it are less than 



76 



Christian Experience. 



the least of God's mercies." Thus meanly did 
this humble man think of this excellent book, 
which now bears the name of "The Temple, 
or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations," of 
which Mr. Farrer would say, "There was in it 
the picture of a divine soul on every page, and 
that the whole book was such a harmony of 
holy passions as would enrich the world with 
pleasure and piety." 

At the time of Mr. Duncon's leaving Mr. 
Herbert, — which was about three weeks before 
his death, — his old and dear friend, Mr. Wood- 
not, came from London to Bemerton, and never 
left him till he had seen him draw his last 
breath, and closed his eyes on his death-bed. 
In this time of his decay, he was often visited 
and prayed for by all the clergymen that lived 
near to him, especially by his friends the bishop 
and prebends of the Cathedral Church in Salis- 
bury, but by none more devoutly than by his 
wife, his three nieces, — then a part of his fam- 
ily, — and Mr. Woodnot, who were the sad wit- 
nesses of his daily decay, to whom he would 



Christian Experience. 



77 



often speak to this purpose : K I now look back 
upon the pleasures of my life past, and see the 
content I have taken in beauty, in wit, in music, 
and pleasant conversation, are now all past 
by me like a dream, or as a shadow that returns 
not, and are now all become dead to me, or I to 
them ; and I see that as my father and genera- 
tion hath done before me, so I also shall now 
suddenly (with Job) make my bed also in the 
dark ; and I praise God I am prepared for it ; 
and I praise Him that I am not to learn patience 
now I stand in such need of it, and that I have 
practised mortification, and endeavored to die 
daily, that I might not die eternally ; and my 
hope is, that I shall shortly leave this valley of 
tears, and be free from all fevers and pain ; and 
which will be a more happy condition, I shall 
be free from sin and all the temptations and 
anxieties that attend it : and this being past, I 
shall dwell in the New Jerusalem ; dwell there 
with men made perfect ; dwell where these eyes 
shall see my Master and Saviour Jesus, and 
with Him see my dear mother, and all my 



78 



Christian Experience. 



relations and friends. But I must die, or not 
come to that happy place. And this is my 
content, that I am going daily towards it, and 
that every day which I have lived hath taken 
a part of my appointed time from me, and that 
I shall live the less time for having lived this 
and the day past." These and the like ex- 
pressions, which he uttered often, may be said 
to be his enjoyment of heaven before he en- 
joyed it. 

The Sunday before his death he rose sud- 
denly from his bed, or couch, called for one 
of his instruments, took it into his hand, and 
said, — 

" My God, my God, 
My music shall find Thee; 
And every string 
Shall have His attribute to sing." 

And, having tuned it, he played and sang, — 

" The Sundays of man's life, 

Threaded together on time's string, 

Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
Of the eternal, glorious King: 

On Sundays heaven's door stands ope; 

Blessings are plentiful and rife, 

More plentiful than hope." 



Christian Experience. 



79 



Thus he sang on earth such hymns and an- 
thems as the angels and he and Mr. Farrer 
now sing in heaven. 

Thus he continued meditating, and praying, 
and rejoicing, till the day of his death, and on 
that day said to Mr. Woodnot, "My dear friend, 
I am sorry I have nothing to present to my mer- 
ciful God but sin and misery ; but the first is 
pardoned, and a few hours will now put a 
period to the latter; for I shall suddenly go 
hence, and be no more seen." Upon which 
expression, Mr. Woodnot took occasion to re- 
member him of the re-edifying Layton Church, 
and his many acts of mercy. To which he 
made answer, saying, "They be good works 
if they be sprinkled with the blood of Christ, 
and not otherwise." 

Izaak Walton. 



MY God, I know that I must die : 
My mortal life is passing hence ; 
On earth I neither hope nor try 
To find a lasting residence. 



8o 



Christian Exjiei'icnce. 



Then teach me, by Thy heavenly grace, 
With joy and peace my death to face. 

My God, I know not when I die, 
What is the moment or the hour. 

How soon the clay may broken lie, 
How quickly pass away the flower ; 

Then may Thy child prepared be, 

Through time, to meet eternity. 

My God, I know not how I die, 

For death has many ways to come, — 

In dark, mysterious agony, 
Or gently as a sleep to some ; 

Just as Thou wilt, if but it be 

Forever blessed, Lord, with Thee. 

My God, I know not whei'e I die, 

Where is my grave, beneath what strand ; 

Yet from its gloom I do rely 
To be delivered by Thy hand. 

Content, I take what spot is mine, 

Since all the earth, my Lord, is Thine. 



Christian Experience. 



81 



My gracious God, when I must die, 
Oh, bear my happy soul above, 

With Christ, my Lord, eternally 
To share Thy glory and Thy love ! 

Then comes it right and well to me, 

When, where, and how my death shall be. 

B. Schmolk. 

6 




THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be 
my disciples. 1 ' — John xv. 8. 




THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



LOVE is its own perennial fount of strength. 
The strength of affection is a proof, not 
of the worthiness of the object, but of the large- 
ness of the soul which loves. Love descends, 
not ascends. The might of a river depends 
not on the quality of the soil through w 7 hich it 
passes, but on the inexhaustibleness and depth 
of the spring from which it proceeds. The 
greater mind cleaves to the smaller with more 
force than the other to it. A parent loves the 
child more than the child the parent, and partly 
because the parent's heart is larger, not because 
the child is worthier. The Saviour loved His 
disciples infinitely more than His disciples loved 
Him, because His heart was infinitely larger. 

C85) 



86 



The Christian Graces. 



Love trusts on — ever hopes and expects better 
things ; and this a trust springing from itself, 
and out of its own deeps alone. 

It is this trusting love that makes men what 
they are trusted to be, so realizing itself. 
Would you make men trustworthy! Trust 
them. Would you make them true? Believe 
them. This was the real force of that sublime 
battle-cry which no Englishman hears without 
emotion. When the crews of the fleet of 
Britain knew that they were expected to do 
their duty, they did their duty. They felt 
in that spirit-stirring sentence that they were 
trusted ; and the simultaneous cheer that rose 
from every ship was a forerunner of victory — 
the battle was half won already. They went to 
serve a country which expected from them great 
things : and they did great things. Those 
pregnant words raised an enthusiasm for the 
chieftain who had thrown himself upon his 
men in trust, which a double line of hostile 
ships could not appall, nor decks drenched in 
blood extinguish. 



The Christian Graces. 



8 7 



And it is on this principle that Christ wins 
the hearts of His redeemed. He trusted the 
doubting Thomas, and Thomas arose with a 
faith worthy "of his Lord and his God." He 
would not suffer even the lie of Peter to shake 
His conviction that Peter might love Him yet ; 
and Peter answered to that sublime forgiveness. 
His last prayer was extenuation and hope for 
the race who had rejected Him ; and the king- 
doms of the world are become His own. He 
has loved us, — God knows why; I do not, — 
and we, all unworthy though we be, respond 
faintly to that love, and try to be what He 
would have us. 

Therefore, come what may, hold fast to love. 
Though men should rend your heart, let them 
not embitter or harden it. We win by tender- 
ness ; we conquer by forgiveness. Oh, strive 
to enter into something of that large, celestial 
charity which is meek, enduring, unretali- 
ating, and which even the overbearing world 
cannot withstand forever. Learn the new 
commandment of the Son of God — not to 



88 



The Christian Graces. 



love, but to love as He loved. Go forth in this 
spirit to your life-duties : go forth, children of 
the Cross, to carry everything before you, and 
win victories for God by the conquering power 
of a love like His. 

F. W. Robertson. 

WHY thus longing, thus forever sighing, 
For the far off, unattained, and dim, 
While the beautiful, all round thee lying, 
Offers up its low, perpetual hymn? 

Wouldst thou listen to its gentle teaching, 
All thy restless yearnings it would still ; 

Leaf, and flower, and laden bee are preaching, 
Thine own sphere, though humble, first to fill. 

Poor indeed thou must be, if around thee 
Thou no ray of light and joy canst throw ; 

If no silken cord of love hath bound thee 
To some little world through weal and woe ; 

If no dear eyes thy fond love can brighten, — 
No fond voices answer to thine own ; 

If no brother's sorrow thou canst lighten 
By daily sympathy and gentle tone. 



The Christian Graces. 



Not by deeds that win the crowd's applauses, 
Not by works that give thee world-renown, 

Not by martyrdom, or vaunted crosses, 

Canst thou win and wear the immortal crown. 

Daily struggling, though unloved and lonely, 
Every day a rich reward will give ; 

Thou wilt find, by hearty striving only, 
And truly loving, thou canst truly live. 

Miss Winslow. 

O DIVINE love — the sweet harmony of 
souls ; the music of angels ; the joy of 
God's own heart ; the very darling of His 
bosom ; the source of true happiness ; the pure 
quintessence of heaven ; that which reconciles 
the jarring principles of the world, and makes 
them all chime together; that which melts 
men's hearts into one another ! See how St. 
Paul describes it, and it cannot choose but 
enamour your affections towards it : ff Love en- 
vieth not, it is not puffed up, it doth not behave 
itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not 



9° 



The Christian Graces, 



easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not 
in iniquity ; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." 
I may add, in a word, it is the best-natured 
thing, the best-complexioned thing, in the 
world. Let us express this sweet, harmonious 
affection in these jarring times; that so, if it 
be possible, we may tune the world into better 
music. Especially in matters of religion, let 
us strive with all meekness to instruct and con- 
vince one another. Let us endeavor to pro- 
mote the gospel of peace, the dove-like gospel, 
with a dove-like spirit. This was the way by 
which the gospel at first was propagated in the 
world : Christ did not cry, nor lift up His voice 
in the streets ; a bruised reed He did not break, 
and the smoking flax He did not quench ; and 
yet He brought "forth judgment unto victory." 

Sweetness and ingenuity will more command 
men's minds than passion, sourness, and severi- 
ty ; as the soft pillow sooner breaks the flint 
than the hardest marble. Let us follow truth 
in love ; and of the two, indeed, be contented 



The Christian Graces. 



9 1 



rather to miss of the conveying of a speculative 
truth, than to part with love. When we would 
convince men of any error by the strength of 
truth, let us withal pour the sweet balm of love 
upon their heads. Truth and love are the two 
most powerful things in the world, and when 
they both go together they cannot be easily 
withstood. The golden beams of truth and 
the silken cords of love, twisted together, will 
draw men on with a sweet violence, whether 
they will or no. 

Let us take heed we do not sometimes call 
that zeal for God and His gospel which is 
nothing else but our own tempestuous and 
stormy passion. True zeal is a sweet, heaven- 
ly and gentle flame, which maketh us active 
for God, but always within the sphere of love. 
It never calls for fire from heaven to consume 
those that differ a little from us in their appre- 
hensions. It is like that kind of lightning 
(which the philosophers speak of) that melts 
the sword within, but singeth not the scab- 
bard ; it strives to save the soul, but hurteth 



92 The Christian Gi'aces. 



not the body. True zeal is a loving thing, 
and makes us always active to edification, and 
not to destruction. If we keep the fire of 
zeal within the chimney, in its own proper 
place, it never doth any hurt: it only warm- 
eth, quickeneth, and enliveneth us ; but if once 
we let it break out, and catch hold of the thatch 
of our flesh, and kindle our corrupt nature, and 
set the house of our body on fire, it is no longer 
zeal — it is no heavenly fire ; it is a most de- 
structive and devouring thing. True zeal is a 
soft and gentle flame, that will not scorch one's 
hand ; it is no predatory or voracious thing : 
but carnal and fleshly zeal is like the spirit of 
gunpowder set on fire, that tears and blows up 
all that stands before it. 

Ralph Cudworth. 



WHO keepeth not God's word, yet saith, 
I know the Lord, is wrong ; 
In him is not that blessed faith 

Through which the truth is strong ; 



The Christian Graces. 93 



But he who hears and keeps the word 
Is not of this world, but of God. 

He is in God, and God in him, 

Who still abides in love ; 
'Tis love that makes the cherubim 

Obey and praise above ; 
For God is love ; the loveless heart 
Hath in His life and joy no part. 



HERE are, no doubt, times when joy is 



^- impossible. When the heart is broken 
it cannot be "merry." But it is necessary for 
some people to remember that cheerfulness, 
good spirits, light-heartedness, merriment, are 
not unchristian nor unsaintly. 

We do not please God more by eating bitter 
aloes than by eating honey. A cloudy, foggy, 
rainy day is not more heavenly than a day of 
sunshine. A funeral march is not so much 
like the music of angels as the songs of birds 
on a May morning. There is no more religion 



C. F. Gellert. 




94 



The Christian Graces. 



in the gaunt, naked forest, in winter, than in 
the laughing blossoms of the spring and the 
rich, ripe fruits of autumn. It was not the 
pleasant things in the world that came from 
the devil, and the dreary things from God; it 
was "sin that brought death into the world and 
all our woe ; " as the sin vanishes, the woe will 
vanish too. God Himself is the ever-blessed 
God. He dwells in the light of joy as well as 
of purity ; and instead of becoming more like 
Him as we become more miserable, and as all 
the brightness and glory of life are extin- 
guished, we become more like God as our 
blessedness becomes more complete. The 
great Christian graces are radiant with happi- 
ness. Faith, hope, charity — there is no sad- 
ness in them ; and if penitence makes the heart 
sad, penitence belongs to the sinner, not to the 
saint : as we become more saintly, we have less 
sin to sorrow over. 

No, the religion of Christ is not a religion of 
sorrow. It consoles wretchedness, and bright- 
ens with a divine glory the lustre of every 



The Christian Graces. 



inferior joy. It attracts to itself the broken- 
hearted, the lonely, the weary, the despairing ; 
but it is to give them rest, comfort, and peace. 
It rekindles hope, it inspires strength, cour- 
age, and joy. It checks the merriment of the 
thoughtless, who have never considered the 
graver and more awful realities of man's life 
and destiny ; but it is to lead them through 
transient sorrow to deeper and more perfect 
blessedness, even in this world, than they had 
ever felt before the sorrow came. 

Take the representations of the Christian 
faith which are given in the New Testament, 
and you will see that, though it may be a reli- 
gion for the sorrowful, it is not a sorrowful 
religion. To hearts oppressed with guilt it 
offers the pardon of God ; to those who dread 
the divine displeasure it reveals God's infinite 
love ; to those who are tormented with the con- 
sciousness of moral evil, and penetrated with 
shame and self-contempt by the habitual failure 
of every purpose and endeavor to live a pure 
and perfect life, it offers the inspiration of the 



9 6 



The Christian Graces. 



Holy Ghost. If, at the commencement of the 
Christian life, it relies on the purifying power 
of penitence, and if, to the very end, it en- 
courages devout and reverential fear, it also 
teaches that the joy of God is our strength ; 
and it is an apostolic precept that we should 
K rejoice evermore." As for the chief troubles 
which annoy and distress mankind, it possesses 
the only secret which can make them felt less 
keenly, and borne without that bitterness of 
spirit which poisons grief and transforms a 
calamity morally harmless into a curse and 
a sin. It tells the anxious to cast all their care 
upon God, and to "take no thought for the 
morrow ;" the poor, that they may be heirs of 
a divine glory ; those who have had heavy 
losses, of riches which never take to them- 
selves wings, and treasures of which they can 
never be robbed : it tells those who have suf- 
fered from injustice and calumny, of a right- 
eous Judge and an equitable judgment-seat ; 
it reveals to the sick a life of immortal health ; 
and to those whose hopes are wrecked in this 



The Christian Graces. 



97 



world, a world beyond death, in which they 
may have a career brighter and more trium- 
phant than their happiest imaginations can 
conceive. Nor is it silent and helpless when 
those we love pass from us and are laid in the 
dust. It was not Christ who brought death 
into the world; nor by rejecting Christ can we 
or our friends become immortal. The brain 
burned with the fires of fever, the limbs were 
struck with paralysis, the harmonious move- 
ments of the heart were troubled with fatal 
disease, before Christ came ; and these evils 
would continue in the world if all memory of 
the Christian faith perished. But to the dying, 
and those who mourn for the dead, Christ re- 
veals glory and immortality as the certain des- 
tiny of all who love and fear God. It does not 
become a Christian to be "melancholy. 5 ' 

R. W. Dale. 



\~s (This outer world we tread on) as a harp, — 
A gracious instrument, on whose fair strings 




ONSIDER it 



7 



98 



The Christian Graces. 



We learn those airs we shall be set to play 
When mortal hours are ended. Let the wings, 
Man, of thy spirit move on it as the wind, 
And draw forth melody. Why shouldst thou yet 
Lie grovelling? More is won than e'er was lost : 
Inherit. Let thy day be to thy night 
A teller of good tidings. Let thy praise 
Go up as birds go up that, when they wake, 
Shake off the dew, and soar. 

So take Joy home, 
And make a place in thy great heart for her, 
And give her time to grow, and cherish her ; 
Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee, 
When thou art working in the furrows ; ay, 
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
It is a comely fashion to be glad, — 
Joy is the grace we say to God. 

Art tired ? 

There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned ? 
There is a Sacrifice. Lift up thy head ; 
The lovely world, and the over-world alike, 
Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede — 
" Thy Father loves thee." 

Jean Ingelow. 



The Christian Graces. 



99 



OW, by the verdure on thy thousand hills, 
Beloved England, doth the earth appear 
Quite good enough for men to overbear 
The will of God in, with rebellious wills ! 
We cannot say the morning sun fulfils 
Ingloriously its course, nor that the clear, 
Strong stars without significance insphere 
Our habitation. We, meantime, our ills 
Heap up against this good, and lift a cry 
Against this work-day world, this ill-spread feast, 
As if ourselves were better certainly 
Than what we come to. Maker and High Priest, 
I ask Thee not my joys to multiply, — 
Only to make me worthier of the least. 

Mrs. E. B. Browning. 




IN no quarter upon earth can I read the 
charter and title-deeds of happiness more 
legibly written than in the words of "love, 
joy, peace." What else can we desire? What 
else do we pursue? In a million elements, va- 
rying as our million characters ; in youth and 
age ; in health and sickness ; in nature and 



IOO 



The Christian Graces. 



art ; in literature ; in domestic duties ; in phi- 
lanthropy ; in the many-friended house ; in the 
house of a few earthly friends ; where disposi- 
tions are simple and homely, where they are 
lofty and refined; in poverty and riches, — 
everywhere, everywhere, love, joy, and peace 
may be met and hailed. 

Then why so many haggard faces, restless 
spirits, fermenting tempers, in the midst of what, 
in outward show, is almost unalloyed prosperi- 
ty? Because love, joy, and peace are the fruits 
of the Spirit; and where the olive tree of the 
Spirit is not, there you will look in vain for 
the olive leaves and berries. No, "love, joy, 
and peace," to dwell with you, abide with you, 
— not for an hour or a day, but permanently, — 
are the fruits of the Spirit ; and there is no use 
in diving into a sea, or climbing a mountain, to 
discover them elsewhere in our present inher- 
itance. 

Sarah Tytler. 



The Christian Graces. 



101 



HE true and proper antagonist of the 



-B- selfish feelings is not the social feelings, 
which are limited or confined within the range 
and application of social institutions, and which, 
at the ultimate, make but a republic of men, 
each watched by his fellow, but the religious 
feeling, which at once destroys our own indi- 
viduality by making us a subject of the Most 
High, and subordinates our wishes and our 
interests to the revealed will and purpose of 
God. And not in proportion to the refine- 
ments of society is selfishness subdued, but 
in proportion to the progress of religion. And 
a country is civilized and happy according to 
the regard which it hath for the authority of 
God, not according to the subjection which it 
hath to the laws of men. The one eradicates, 
the other only opposes, — the one removes, the 
other only restrains, — the selfish and malignant 
passions of the heart. A man may be intense- 
ly selfish and malignant, yet a good subject 
and a reputable member of society. A man 




102 



The Christian Graces. 



cannot be a Christian in the least without 
being in the same degree delivered out of his 
own will into the will of God. And whatever 
of our own free w 7 ill w r e surrender, is surren- 
dered into the hands of One who is wiser to 
guide, and more able to promote. And if we 
surrender all our will and personal interests 
into His hand, then indeed we become a part 
of His family, His children, the brethren of 
Jesus Christ, His disciples and servants, and 
the active ministers of His Holy Spirit. We 
are nothing ; He is everything. We love Him, 
and He loveth us, and He cwelleth w-ith us; 
He in us, and we in Him. 

Exactly in proportion as this lesson is learned 
and acted on, w x e get delivered out of the power 
of selfishness, with all its anxieties, cares, jeal- 
ousies, and malignant actions, into the power 
of faith and trust, with all their fruits of peace, 
joy, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, pa- 
tience, temperance; and being now 7 in confi- 
dence and communion with the Father of 
spirits, w 7 hose sceptre is a sceptre of righteous- 



The Christian Graces. 103 



ness, we are not afraid of what man can do 
against us, neither are we afraid that the power 
of the wicked can prevail against the progress 
of the truth. K For He maketh the wrath of 
man to praise Him, and the remainder of his 
wrath He doth restrain." There ensueth a 
divine contentment with our lot, a resignation 
to the evil, a temperate enjoyment of the good, 
and a thankfulness for all. The limitations of 
our faculties give us no distress. We are as 
God made us, and we shall be answerable for 
that only which He hath given us. And the 
higher gifts and offices of another do not grieve 
us. "To his God he standeth or falleth." We 
rejoice in what is true, and worthy, and right- 
eous, wherever it is found. Every device of 
goodness we promote and hasten forward ; and 
we love those who love it, and we help those 
who strive for it. Truth and righteousness are 
to us the voice and footsteps of God, and we 
revere them for His sake who first manifested 
them in the person of His dear Son. And if 
we can promote good works in others, we 



104 



The Christian Graces. 



delight to do so ; and we delight to have good 
promoted by others in ourselves. We become 
absorbed in God's commonwealth : our citizen- 
ship is in heaven, and we do the works of our 
Father who is in heaven. 

Edward Irving. 



SOME murmur when their sky is clear, 
And wholly bright to view, 
If one small speck of dark appear 

In their great heaven of blue ; 
And some with thankful love are filled 

If but one streak of light, 
One ray of God's good mercy, gild 
The darkness of their night. 

In palaces are hearts that ask, 

In discontent and pride, 
Why life is such a dreary task, 

And all good things denied ; 
And hearts in poorest huts admire 

How Love has in their aid 
(Love that not ever seems to tire) 

Such rich provision made. 

R. C. Trench. 



The Christian Graces. 



105 



OME of the hidden or less notorious quali- 



ties of piety, which we are accustomed to 
overlook, are among the most important in 
their bearing on the mental faculties. One 
of these qualities might be termed humanity, 
the possession of humane sentiments, tender- 
ness, generosity, disinterestedness. The apos- 
tle Peter refers to it when he enjoins on his 
disciples to be pitiful, to be courteous. 

We too often see individuals who make loud 
and boastful professions of piety, who are, not- 
withstanding, hard-hearted ; generous, possibly, 
in their conduct towards some persons, morose 
or neglectful in relation to others ; earnest in 
their proffers of friendship, deficient in real 
kindness ; liberal in their contributions towards 
the general spread of the gospel, but whose 
benevolence is not of good report in their own 
neighborhood. That tendency in our fallen 
nature which induces us to place reliance on 
a doctrinal creed, or on a zealous tempera- 
ment, in the neglect of humane sentiments and 




io6 



The Christian Graces. 



of a generous disposition, is the reason why 
the apostles so earnestly admonish their disci- 
ples on the subject. 

Nearly allied to this disposition, and perhaps 
a result of it, is candor in judgment — a habit 
of putting a charitable construction upon the 
motives of our fellow-men ; the absence of 
bigotry and exclusiveness ; a resolute deter- 
mination to judge of books, of systems of 
knowledge, and of men, with discriminating 
kindness. No one ought to be considered as 
eminently pious who is rash and overbearing 
in his moral or literary judgments. If his 
piety does not enter into and control these 
matters, it is one-sided and partial. We are 
not required, indeed, to remain ignorant of the 
deficiencies of our neighbors and friends ; but 
we are required to throw the mantle of charity 
over their faults, and to maintain, in all our 
intercourse with them, the character of Chris- 
tian gentlemen. Now, these illiberal judgments 
and uncourteous feelings are intimately con- 
nected with a narrow understanding and with 



The Christian Graces. 107 



confined intellectual opinions. The natural 
tendency of enlarged views, and of extensive 
and patient reading is to break down the bar- 
riers of party, and of a selfish bigotry, while 
it refines and ennobles the soul. 

Distinguished piety is conscientious. It im- 
plies an habitual performance of the smaller 
duties of life, a careful attention to the thou- 
sand minute occurrences of every day. It im- 
plies a wakeful moral sensibility, a delicate 
spiritual perception, an instinctive shrinking 
from the remotest contact with evil. Some in- 
dividuals, who have been regarded as eminent- 
ly pious, appear to have been very imperfectly 
controlled by their conscience. It took cog- 
nizance of the presumptuous sin. It laid its 
authority on the outbreaking enormity. But it 
slept over unnumbered nameless delinquencies. 
It did not utter its warning in the incipient 
stages of transgression. In such cases the 
conscience is not enlightened by knowledge. 
It is in a state of comparative eclipse. 

In forming an estimate of what constitutes 



io8 



The Christian Graces. 



eminent piety, we sometimes err in not making 
sufficient allowance for diversities of natural 
character. We erect a standard, and deter- 
mine that all men shall conform to it. We 
fabricate one suit of armor, and compel David 
and Saul alike to wear it. But there are inno- 
cent temperaments, diverse in different indi- 
viduals, all of which we would extinguish. 
If we had our will, there would be one dull, 
tasteless uniformity in the character of our 
piety, eminent though it might be. But dis- 
tinguished holiness is consistent with the count- 
less varieties of innocent natural temperament. 
That development of thought and feeling which 
in one man would be at war with his religious 
consistency, would be perfectly in unison with 
it in another, because it would be in accordance 
with the man and his general spirit. 

Richard Baxter somewhere remarks, that at 
one period he entertained doubts in relation to 
the experimental character of the piety of Sir 
Matthew Hale, inasmuch as the judge was in- 
clined, in his almost daily conversation with 



The Christian Graces. 109 



Baxter, to dwell upon abstract truth, or on 
speculative opinion, with scarcely an allusion 
to personal religious feeling. Baxter was 
subsequently convinced, however, that he had 
formed an erroneous judgment. 

It would have been incongruous in Hale to 
have copied the ardent manner of Baxter. 
His unimpeachable integrity as a judge, his 
conscientious observance of the Sabbath day, 
were better proofs of eminent piety than any 
conversational powers could have been. Hale 
kept himself unspotted from the world in the 
court of Charles II. Could Baxter, or any 
other man, have done more? 

B. B. Edwards. 



FAITH, Hope, and Charity — these three ; 
Yet is the greatest — Charity. 
Father of lights, these gifts impart 
To mine and every human heart. 

Faith, that in prayer can never fail ; 
Hope, that o'er doubting must prevail ; 



no 



The Christian Graces. 



And Charity, whose name above 

Is God's own name — for God is Love. 

The morning star is lost in light, 
Faith vanishes at perfect sight, 
The rainbow passes with the storm, 
And hope with sorrow's fading form. 

But Charity, serene, sublime, 
Unlimited by death or time, 
Like the blue sky's all-bounding space, 
Holds heaven and earth in one embrace. 



THOROUGH conviction of the differ- 



assured of in social knowledge : it is to life 
what Newton's law is to astronomy. Some- 
times men have a knowledge of it with regard 
to the world in general ; they do not expect the 
outer world to agree with them in all points, 
but are vexed at not being able to drive their 
own tastes and opinions into those they live 
with. Diversities distress them. They will 



Montgomery. 




men is the great thing to be 



The Christian Graces. 



in 



not see that there are many forms of virtue and 
wisdom. Yet we might as well say, "Why all 
these stars? why this difference? why not all 
one star ? " 

Many of the rules for people living together 
in peace follow from the above. For instance, 
not to interfere unreasonably with others ; not 
to ridicule their tastes ; not to question and re- 
question their resolves ; not to indulge in per- 
petual comment on their proceedings, and to 
delight in their having other pursuits than 
ours, are all based upon a thorough percep- 
tion of the simple fact that they are not we. 

If you would be loved as a companion, 
avoid unnecessary criticism upon those with 
whom you live. The number of people who 
have taken out judges' patents for themselves 
is very large in any society. Now, it would 
be hard for a man to live with another who 
was always criticising his actions, even if it 
were kindly and just criticism. It would be 
like living between the glasses of a miscro- 
scope. But these self-elected judges, like their 



ii2 The Christian Graces. 



prototypes, are very apt to have the persons 
they judge brought before them in the guise 
of culprits. 

One of the most provoking forms of the 
criticism above alluded to, is that which may 
be called criticism over the shoulder. " Had 
I been consulted," ?? Had you listened to me," 
"But you always will," and such short scraps 
of sentences, may remind many of us of dis- 
sertations which we have suffered and in- 
flicted, and of which we cannot call to mind 
any soothing effect. 

Another rule is, not to let familiarity swal- 
low up all courtesy. Many of us have a 
habit of saying to those with whom we live, 
such things as we say about strangers behind 
their backs. There is no place, however, 
where real politeness is of more value than 
where we mostly think it would be super- 
fluous. You may say more truth, or rather 
speak out more plainly, to your associates, 
but not less courteously, than you do to 
strangers. 



The Christian Graces. 



"3 



In conciliating those we live with, it is most 
surely done, not by consulting their interests, 
nor by giving way to their opinions, so much 
as by not offending their tastes. The most 
refined part of us lies in this region of taste, 
which is, perhaps, a result of our whole being, 
rather than a part of our nature, and, at any 
rate, is the region of our most subtile sympathies 
and antipathies. 

It may be said that if the great principles of 
Christianity were attended to, all such rules, 
suggestions, and observations as the above 
would be needless. True enough. Great 
principles are at the bottom of all things ; but 
to apply them to daily life, many little rules, 
precautions, and insights are needed. Such 
things hold a middle place between real life 
and principles , as form does between matter 
and spirit, moulding the one and expressing 
*the other. 

Arthur Helps. 



ii4 



The Christian Graces, 



OW are scores of well-meaning women, 



A who in their hearts really like and re- 
spect one another; who, did trouble come to 
any one of them, would be ready with count- 
less mutual kindnesses, small and great; and 
among whom the sudden advent of death would 
subdue every idle tongue to honest praise, and 
silence, at once and forever, every bitter word 
against the neighbor departed, — how are they 
to be taught to be every day as generous, con- 
siderate, liberal-minded, — in short, womanly, — 
as they would assuredly be in any exceptionable 
day of adversity? How are they to be made 
to feel the littleness, the ineffably pitiful little- 
ness, of raking up and criticising every slight 
peculiarity of manner, habits, temper, charac- 
ter, word, action, motive, — household, children, 
servants, living, furniture, and dress, — thus con- 
stituting themselves the amateur rag-pickers, 
I was going to say scavengers, but they do not 
leave the streets clean — of all the blind alleys 
and foul by-ways of society ; while the whole 




The Christian Graces. 



"5 



world lies free and open before them, to do 
their work and choose their innocent pleasures 
therein — this busy, bright, beautiful world? 

Such a revolution is, I doubt not, quite hope- 
less on this side Paradise. But every woman 
has it in her power personally to withstand the 
spread of this great plague of tongues, since it 
lies within her own volition what she will do 
with her own. 



ORDS are lighter than the cloud-foam 



Vainer than the trembling shadow 
That the next hour steals away. 

By the fall of summer rain-drops 
Is the air as deeply stirred ; 

And the rose leaf that we tread on, 
Will outlive a word. 

Yet, on the dull silence breaking, 
With a lightning-flash, a Word, 

Bearing endless desolation 

On its blighting wings, I heard : 



Mrs. Craik. 




Of the restless ocean spray ; 



n6 



The Christian Graces. 



Earth can forge no keener weapon, 

Dealing surer death and pain, 
And the cruel echo answered 

Through long years again. 

I have known one word hang star-like, 
O'er a dreary waste of years, 

And it only shone the brighter 

Looked at through a mist of tears ; 

While a weary wanderer gathered 
Hope and heart on life's dark way, 

By its faithful promise, shining 
Clearer day by day. 

I have known a spirit, calmer 
Than the calmest lake, and clear 

As the heavens that gazed upon it, 
With no wave of hope or fear ; 

But a storm had swept across it, 
And its deepest depths were stirred 

(Never, never more to slumber) 
Only by a word. 

I have known a word more gentle 
Than the breath of summer air ; 

In a listening heart it nestled, 
And it lived forever there. 



The Christian Gi'aces. 117 

Not the beating of its prison 

Stirred it ever, night or day ; 
Only with the heart's last throbbing 
Could it fade away. 

Words are mighty, words are living : 
Serpents with their venomous stings, 

Or bright angels, crowding round us, 
With heaven's light upon their wings ; 

Every word has its own spirit, 
True or false, that never dies ; 

Every word man's lips have uttered 

Echoes in God's skies. 

A. A. Procter. 



IF native kindness or Christian charity has 
taught men to think generously of the char- 
acter of others, it is still possible for a miserable 
cynicism to find its prey in infirmities or imper- 
fections which involve no guilt. This is a 
comparatively innocent amusement, but it be- 
trays a certain intellectual vulgarity, and is 
morally mischievous, as all real vulgarity must 



xi8 



The Christian Graces. 



be. There are people who, if they hear an 
organ, find out at once which are the poorest 
stops. If they listen to a great speaker, they 
remember nothing but some slip in the con- 
struction of a sentence, the consistency of a 
metaphor, or the evolution of an argument. 
While their friends are admiring the wealth 
and beauty of a tree, whose branches are 
weighed down with fruit, they have discov- 
ered a solitary bough, lost in the golden afflu- 
ence, on which nothing is hanging. In the 
gun trade there are men whose occupation it 
is to sight the barrels, and detect any fault in 
the bore : it is said that a good eye will discover 
a deflection measuring less than a thousandth 
part of an inch. Not less keen in the detec- 
tion of small flaws in every work of genius — 
poem, oration, building, statue, or painting — 
are certain critics, some of whom air their 
powers in drawing-rooms and at dinner-tables, 
and some of whom find their way, now and 
then, into print. Poor Hazlitt was sorely 
troubled with them in his time. "Littleness," 



The Christian Graces. 119 



he said, "is their element, and they give a 
character of meanness to whatever they touch. 
They creep, buzz, and fly-blow. It is much 
easier to crush than to catch these troublesome 
insects ; and when they are in your power, 
your self-respect spares them." 

Suppose that this habitual depreciation of 
character never sinks into actual falsehood and 
slander, and that every fault alleged, or hinted, 
or suspected, can be proved ; suppose that this 
ignoble criticism is not ignorant blundering, 
and that every imagined imperfection is real, 
— is a carping, cynical temper, much less cen- 
surable, or are the words it prompts much less 
injurious? The influence of talk of this kind 
is gradually to lead people to believe that there 
is nothing in this world which it is safe to trust, 
honorable to love, or discriminating to admire. 
Reverence for saintly goodness vanishes, grati- 
tude for kindness is chilled, and that en- 
thusiastic admiration of great genius, which 
communicates to common men something of 
the strength, and inspires them with something 



120 



The Christian Graces. 



of the dignity, belonging to genius itself, is 
ignominiously quenched. 

It is a Christian grace to have pleasant and 
affectionate thoughts about men, to rejoice in 
their excellences, and charitably to forget, as 
far as may be, their short-comings. It is the 
attribute of a pure and beautiful nature to have 
an eye quick to discern, and a warm heart to 
honor, all that is fair, and bright, and generous 
in human nature. The words which discour- 
age the charity that "thinketh no evil," and 
give keenness, if not malignity, to the discov- 
ery of imperfection, are corrupt and unwhole- 
some ; they are not to be spoken by ourselves, 
and are not to be listened to when spoken by 
others. 

Happy are the friends of those whose con- 
versation " ministers grace to the hearers." It 
may not be always serious and grave, it may 
dance and sparkle like a mountain stream, but 
it is always pure and innocent; it may not be 
always soft and gentle, but when it is roughest 
it is as bracing as the north wind; it may not 



The Christian Graces. 



121 



be always very "instructive," but it is as healthy 
as the scent of the heather, bright and cheer- 
ful as the morning sun, musical as the songs of 
birds, and the rustling of pines, and the sound 
of running waters. And when it touches on 
the deeper subjects of human thought, it is as 
natural as a mother's talk tg her child ; every 
word is sweet, and honest, and true. Next to 
the interior consolation of the Holy Ghost, it is 
the best solace in times of trouble ; and next 
to the words of Him who spake as never man 
spake, it is the most subtile and yet the most 
effective stimulus to well-doing. No measured 
eloquence from the pulpit, no elaborated plead- 
ing in a book, ever penetrates so deeply as the 
wise and earnest words of a living man, talk- 
ing alone to the man he loves. Most of us 
need to be better and wiser than we are, to 
speak after this manner to the people about us ; 
but we may all watch against "corrupt commu- 
nications;" and when we cannot speak whole- 
some words, we may at least be silent. 

R. W. Dale. 



122 The Christian Graces, 



| 



TJE who desires to become a spiritual man 
A must not be ever taking note of others, 
and, above all, of their sins, lest he fall into 
wrath and bitterness, and a judging spirit to- 
wards his neighbors. O children, this works 
such great mischief in a man's soul as it is 
miserable to think of; wherefore, as you love 
God, shun this evil temper, and turn your eyes 
full upon yourselves, and see if you cannot 
discover the same fault in yourselves, either in 
times past or nowadays. And if you find it, 
remember how that it is God's appointing that 
you should now behold this sin in another in 
order that you may be brought to acknowledge 
and repent of it ; and amend your ways, and 
pray for your brother that God may grant him 
repentance and amendment, according to His 
divine will. 

I tell thee, dear child, if thou couldst con- 
quer thyself by long-suffering, and gentleness, 
and the pureness of thy heart, thou wouldst 
have vanquished all thine enemies. It would 



The Christian Graces. 123 



be better for thee than if thou hadst won the 
hearts of all the world by thy writings and 
wisdom, and hadst miserably destroyed thine 
own soul by passing judgment on thy neigh- 
bors ; for the Lord says, "And why beholdest 
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but 
considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye?" 

John Tauler. 



64 T^TAY, speak no ill ; a kindly word 
-L ^ Can never leave a sting behind ; 
And, oh, to breathe each tale we've heard 

Is far beneath a noble mind ; 
For oft a better seed is sown 

By choosing thus a kinder plan ; 
For if but little good we know, 

Let's speak of all the good we can. 

" Give me the heart that fain would hide, 
Would fain another's fault efface. 
How can it please our human pride 
To prove humanity but base ? 



124 



The Christian Graces. 



No, let it reach a higher mode, 
A nobler estimate of man : 

Be earnest in the search of good, 
And speak of all the best we can. 

" Then speak no ill, but lenient be 

To others' failings as your own. 
If you're the first a fault to see, 

Be not the first to make it known ; 
For life is but a passing day ; 

No lips can tell how brief the stay. 
Be earnest in the search of good, 

And speak of all the best we may." 



H that I could speak aright of faith ! 



Oh that I could redeem it from that 
paltry conceit into which our wretched evi- 
dence-w T riters have reduced it ! Oh that I 
could give you Paul's idea of faith, the idea 
of the Fathers, the idea of the Reformers ! 
Then would I show r that career of the soul's 
faculties compared with which the highest 
scientific research is as earth compared with 




The Christian Graces. 



125 



heaven ; for which poetry and philosophy are 
but, as it were, the sharpening of the tools, 
and which hath no kindred with any other of 
the soul's various occupations ; being the in- 
gathering of all her powers, the husbandry of 
all her exertions, the resurrection of all her 
might, the enjoyment of all her delights in the 
study, and meditation, and appropriation, and 
application of all the divinest things which the 
Son of God was able to reveal for the exalta- 
tion of the being of man into the heavenly 
place of the divine nature. There should be 
no more debating or disputing about faith and 
works, if men did but know what faith was, to 
which outward works are like the lipping shore 
to the mighty ocean ; for as the ocean doth lie 
with her many arms and bays around the 
earth, and convey the blessings which are borne 
upon her breast, or brought forth in her hid- 
den womb, to all those who people her man- 
ifold shores, so is faith like the great ocean of 
spiritual thought and feeling, which breedeth 
infinite good, and worketh with mighty motion 



126 



The Christian Graces. 



in itself, and beareth outward a plentiful tide of 
good and charitable works to all the people and 
places with which it hath intercourse in the com- 
munion and fellowship of human life. Works 
are but the hem of the garment of faith, which 
waves abroad to the liberal observation of men ; 
but the soft and warm substance of the gar- 
ment, which enwrappeth the tender frame of 
our own being, and protecteth it from inclement 
weather and rude wintry blasts, — that is faith. 

The man of faith is a noble man and a gra- 
cious man, and a high-minded man, and a 
charitable man. Find him in a cottage or in 
a palace, in an occupation of honor or in an 
occupation of disgrace, a man he is to give 
the law to other men, and to sustain the high- 
est men by his spotlessness, and the most 
learned by his wisdom. And they have even 
done exploits, and borne perils, and subdued 
obstinate resistances, and will do to the end of 
the world ; for as the jewelled crown is among 
the ornaments of the head of men, so is faith 
among the ornaments of the mind of men ; and 



The Christian Graces. 



127 



as a sceptre in the hand of kings is to the staff 
in the hands of other men, so is faith among 
the other powers and authorities of the immor- 
tal soul — the prince, the potentate, the ruling 
and presiding genius of the whole. 

Edward Irving. 



Tt THEN the thought came of what St. 

▼ » Paul has said somewhere, — "Whatso- 
ever is not of faith is sin," — I thought what a 
weight of sin had to be lifted from the earth, 
and how blessed it might be. But what could 
I do for it? I could just begin with myself, 
and pray God for that inward light which is 
His Spirit, that so I might see Him in every- 
thing, and rejoice in everything as His gift, 
and then all things would be holy, for whatso- 
ever is of faith must be the opposite of sin ; and 
that was my part towards bearing the weight 
of sin — which, like myriads of grave-stones, 
was pressing the life out of us men — off the 
whole world. Faith in God is life and right- 



128 



The Christian Graces. 



eousness, — the faith that trusts so that it will 
obey, — none other. Lord, lift the people 
Thou hast made into holy obedience and 
thanksgiving, that they may be glad in this 
Thy world ! George MacDonald . 



THOU who didst hang upon a barren tree, 
My God, for me ; 
Though I till now be barren, now at length, 
Lord, give me strength 
To bring forth fruit to Thee. 

Thou who didst bear for me the crown of thorn, 

Spitting and scorn, 
Though I till now have put forth thorns, yet now 
Strengthen me Thou, 
That better fruit be borne. 

Thou Rose of Sharon, Cedar of broad roots, 

Vine of sweet fruits, 
Thou Lily of the Vale, with fadeless leaf, 
Of thousands Chief, 
Feed Thou my feeble shoots. 

Christina Rossetti. 



The Christian Graces. 129 



ROM the way some people speak of physi- 



A cal difficulties, you would think that they 
were not merely the inevitable, which they are, 
but the insurmountable, which they are not. 
That they are physical, and not spiritual, is 
not only a great consolation, but a strong argu- 
ment for overcoming them ; for all that is phys- 
ical is put, or is in the process of being put, 
under the feet of the spiritual. Do not mistake 
me. I do not say you can make yourself feel 
merry, or happy, when you are in a physical 
condition which is contrary to such mental con- 
dition. But you can withdraw from it — not 
all at once, but by practice and effort, you can 
learn to withdraw from it, refusing to allow 
your judgments and actions to be ruled by it. 
You can climb up out of the fogs, and sit quiet 
in the sunlight on the hill-side of faith. You 
cannot be merry down below in the fog, for 
there is the fog ; but you can, every now and 
then, fly with the dove-wings of the soul up 
into the clear, to remind yourself that all this 




9 



130 The Christian Gi'aces. 



passes away, is but an accident, and that the 
sun shines always, although it may not at any 
given moment be shining on you. "What does 
that matter?" you will learn to say. "It is 
enough for me to know that the sun does shine, 
and that this is only a weary fog- that is round 
about me for the moment. I shall come out 
into the light beyond presently." This is faith 
— faith in God, who is the Light, and is All in 
All. I believe that the most glorious instances 
of calmness in suffering are thus achieved ; that 
the sufferers really do not suffer what one of us 
would if thrown into their physical condition 
without the refuge of their spiritual condition 
as well ; for they have taken refuge in the 
inner chamber. Out of the spring of their life 
a power goes forth that quenches the flames of 
the furnace of their suffering, so far at least that 
it does not touch the deep life, cannot make 
them miserable, does not drive them from the 
possession of their soul in patience, w T hich is 
the divine citadel of the suffering. 

George MacDonald. 



The Christian Graces. 



131 




"""E'ER was left a helpless prey, 



~L ^ Ne'er with shame was turned away, 
He who gave himself to God, 
And on Him had cast a load. 

Who in God his hope hath placed 
Shall not life in pain outwaste : 
Fullest joy he yet shall taste. 

Every sorrow, every smart, 

That the Eternal Father's heart 

Hath appointed me of yore, 

Or hath yet for me in store, 
As my life flows on, I'll take, 
Calmly, gladly, for His sake, 
No more faithless murmurs make. 



HEN God comes to us wrapped and 



▼ ▼ wreathed in clouds and in storms, why 
should we not recognize Him, and say, "I 
know Thee, God, and I will not fear Thee. 
Though Thou slay me, I will trust Thee"? 



Paul Gerhardt. 




132 



The Christian Graces. 



If a man could see his God in his troubles, 
and take sorrow to be the lore of inspiration, 
the light of interpretation, the sweet discipline 
of a bitter medicine that brings health, though 
the taste is not agreeable, — if one could so look 
upon his God, — how would sorrows make him 
strong ! 

No person is ordained until his sorrows put 
into his hands the power of comforting others. 
Did anybody but Paul ever think as Paul did? 
See what a genuine nobleness and benevolence 
there was in everything he did ! Sorrow is apt 
to be very selfish ; it is apt to be self-indulgent ; 
but see how sorrow worked in the apostle ! 
"Blessed be God," said he, "even the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mer- 
cies, and the God of all comfort, who comfort- 
eth us in all our tribulation, that we may be 
able to comfort them which are in any trouble 
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are 
comforted of God." 

Christian brethren, does God so comfort you 
that you are able to bear the yoke, and to 



The Christian Graces. 



133 



endure the piercing thorn? And when God 
enables you to bear it, is your first thought 
this — "I am now admitted into the sacred 
church of the sufferers ; I am now marked 
with the cross, as one that bears for others ; I 
am lifted up among my fellow-men, not to be 
praised, but that I may go about as my Master 
did, and minister to them the consolations by 
which I myself have been comforted"? Do 
not any of you. say, "The cup is too large 
and too bitter." Never. The Hand that was 
pierced for you takes the cup, and gives it to 
you ; and Christ loves you too much to give 
you a cup that you cannot drink. Do not say 
"The burden is too great; I cannot bear it." 
He that loves you as you do not even yourself 
love yourself, — the Redeemer, "the God of 
all comfort," the "Father of mercies," — lays 
every burden on you ; and He that lays the 
burden on will give you strength to bear it. 
Take up your cross. God gives everybody, I 
think, a cross, when he enters upon a Christian 
life. When it comes into his hands, what is 



134 



The Christian Graces. 



it? It is the rude oak, four-square, full of 
splinters and slivers, and rudely tacked togeth- 
er. And after forty years, I see some men 
carrying their cross just as rude as it was at 
first. Others, I perceive, begin to wind around 
about it faith, and hope, and patience ; and, 
after a time, like Aaron's rod, it blossoms all 
over. And at last their cross has been so 
covered with holy affections, that it does not 
seem any more to be a cross. They carry it 
so easily, and are so much more strengthened 
than burdened by it, that men almost forget 
that it is a cross, by the triumph with which 
they carry it. Carry your cross in such a way 
that there shall be victory in it ; and let every 
tear, as it drops from your eye, glance also, as 
the light strikes through it, with the consola- 
tions of the Holy Ghost. 

H. W. Beecher. 

SO keen her loss, each lovely sight 
Was wrapped in clouds of darkest night ; 
Her face was calm, her brow was pale, 
Her drooping e)~elids seemed a veil 



I 



The Christian Graces. 135 



To hide each fair and beauteous thing, 
And over all a pall to fling. 
She meekly bowed, each murmur stilled, 
While peace divine her bosom filled. 

Whene'er along the crowded street, 
That calm, sweet face I chanced to meet, 
And saw the patient, trustful look, 
I read a page from God's own book ; 
I learned how every loss may bring 
A balm to heal each piercing sting, 
How deep content from woe may spring, 
How stricken souls may rise and sing. 

She did not know her sightless face 
Was lighted up with heavenly grace, 
That benedictions seemed to rest 
Where'er her faltering footsteps pressed ; 
But when those eyes shall gain their sight, 
In God's own home, where all is light, 
She then will learn what blessings came 
To souls unknown from all her pain. 

C. A. Means. 



136 The Christian Graces. 



UST remember this, my friend, whenever you 



feel any tendency to a haughty spirit, — when- 
ever you feel any disposition to talk big, and look 
big, and speak about your position and your in- 
fluence, and what you are entitled to, — just re- 
member this — that Christ thinks us all poor 
creatures, pitiable beings, beggars needing 
alms, fever-stricken patients needing the phy- 
sician ; helpless, hopeless, unworthy sinners, 
deserving of the deepest compassion because 
we are so devoid of help or hope. How 
humble we ought to be when we draw near 
to God ; with how lowly a countenance ought 
we to address our fellow-men ; how 7 carefully 
we should avoid the least appearance of any- 
thing overbearing, or tyrannical, or haughty ! 
The Bible tells us, as you all know, that pride 
is especially hateful to God. "God resisteth 
the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." 
"An high look and a proud heart," said the 
wisest of men, "is sin." And what wonder 
that it should be so? Is it not something 




I 



The Christian Graces. 137 



besides sin ? is it not the most outrageous folly ? 
A poor creature, the object of Christ's kind 
compassion, and fancying to himself how- 
great, and influential, and dignified a person 
he is ! Oh, my brother, let us be humble ! 
Let us be clothed with humility. It is the 
right frame of spirit for beings such as you 



WITHOUT humility, a contrite heart and 
a prevailing prayer for pardon are 
impossible. Without humility, though we be 
scarlet with sin, we only "go about to estab- 
lish our own righteousness, not submitting our- 
selves to the righteousness of God." We try 
to forget our real selves, by dwelling on the 
good but mistaken opinion which others may 
have formed of us. All is hollow beneath the 
surface of the character, but w 7 e hug the delu- 
sion that all is sound. We shrink from that 
sight of God, and of ourselves, from that sim- 
ple acknowledgment of fact, which, when we 



138 The Christian Graces. 



face it, must leave us in our shame, trembling 
indeed before the Infinite Purity, yet not with- 
out a hope and a remedy at the bar of Infinite 
Mercy. It is only when the proud heart is 
broken that a man casts himself at the feet of 
our crucified Saviour, to pray for the atoning 
stream of blood which may wash out his deep 
stains of guilt, and give him peace in giving 
him pardon. Without humility religious prog- 
ress is impossible. Pride is the destruction of 
the principle of progress. 

Without humility no soul that has turned to 
God, and is learning to serve Him, is for a mo- 
ment safe. The whole life of the living soul 
is the work of divine grace ; and while pride 
claims merit for self, and therefore goes before 
a fall, humility confesses day by day, "By the 
grace of God I am what I am." 

H. P. LlDDON. 



j 



The Christian Graces. 



139 




UMBLE thyself, and God will lift thee up : 
Those that exalt themselves He casteth down : 



The hungry He invites with Him to sup, 

And clothes the naked with His robe and crown. 
Think not thou hast what thou from Him wouldst 
have : 

His labor 's lost if thou thyself canst save. 

Pride is the prodigality of grace, 

Which casteth all away by griping all ; 

Humility is thrift, both keeps its place, 
And gains by giving, riseth by its fall. 

To get by giving, and to lose by keeping, 

Is to be sad in mirth, and glad in weeping. 

George Herbert. 



ABOVE the kingdom of law, which says 
to a man merely, "Thou shalt not do 
wrong ; and if thou dost thou shalt be pun- 
ished," there is another kingdom, far deeper, 
wider, nobler; even the kingdom of grace, 
which says to a man, not merely, "Do not do 



140 



The Christian Graces. 



wrong," but, "Do right;" and not only, "Do 
right for fear of being punished," but, "Do 
right because it is right ; do right because thou 
hast grace in thy heart, even the grace of God, 
and the Spirit of God, which makes thee love 
what is right, and see how right it is, and how 
beautiful ; so that thou must follow after the 
right, not from fear of punishment, but in spite 
of fear of punishment ; follow after the right, 
not when it is safe only, but when it is danger- 
ous ; not when it is honorable only in the eyes 
of men, but when it is despised. If thou hast 
God's grace in thy heart, if thou lovest what 
is right with the true love, which is the Spirit 
of God, then thou wilt never stop to ask, 'Will 
it pay me to do right?' Thou wilt feel that the 
right thou must do, whether it pays thee or not ; 
still loving the right, and cleaving steadfastly 
to the right, through disappointment, poverty, 
shame, trouble, death itself, if need be, if only 
thou canst keep a conscience void of offence 
towards God and man." 

"But shall I have no reward," asks a man, 



The Christian Graces. 



141 



"for doing right? Am I to give up a hundred 
pleasant things for conscience' sake, and get 
nothing in return?" Yes, there is a reward for 
righteousness, even in this life. God repays 
those who make sacrifices for conscience' sake, 
I verily believe, in most cases a hundred-fold 
in this life. In this life it stands true, that he 
who loses his life shall save it ; that he who 
goes through the world with a single eye to 
duty, without selfishness, without vanity, with- 
out ambition, careless whether he be laughed 
at, careless whether he be ill used, provided 
only his conscience acquits him, and God's 
approving smile is on him, — in this life it 
stands true that that man is the happiest man, 
after all ; that that man is the most prosperous 
man, after all; that, like Christ when He was 
doing His Father's work, he has meat to eat 
and strengthen him in his life's journey which 
the world knows not of. But if not, if it seem 
good to God to let him taste the bitters, and not 
the sweets, of doing right, in this life ; if it 
seem good to God that he should suffer- — as 



142 The Christian Graces. 



many a man, and woman too, has suffered for 
doing right — nothing but contempt, neglect, 
prison, and death, is he worse off than Jesus 
Christ, his Lord, was before him? Shall the 
disciple be above his Master? What if he 
have to drink of the cup of sorrow of which 
Christ drank, and be baptized with the baptism 
of martyrdom with which Christ was baptized? 
Where is he but where the Son of God has 
been already? 

The statesman debating in parliament, the 
conqueror changing the fate of nations on 
bloody battle-fields, — these all do their work, 
and are needful, doubtless, in a sinful, piece- 
meal world like this. But there are those of 
whom the noisy world never hears ; who have 
chosen the better part, which shall not be taken 
from them ; who enter into a higher glory than 
that of statesmen, or conquerors, or the suc- 
cessful and famous of the earth. Many a man 
— clergyman or layman — struggling in pov- 
erty and obscurity, with daily toil of body and 
mind, to make his fellow-creatures better and 



The Christian Graces. 



H3 



happier ; many a poor woman, bearing children 
in pain and sorrow, and bringing them up with 
pain and'sorrow, but in industry too, and piety, 
or submitting without complaint to a brutal hus- 
band, or sacrificing all her own hopes in life to 
feed and educate her brothers and sisters, or 
enduring for years the peevishness and trouble- 
someness of some relation, — all these (and 
the world which God sees is full of such, 
though the world which man sees takes no 
note of them) gentle souls, humble souls, un- 
complaining souls, suffering souls, pious souls, 
— these are God's elect ; these are Christ's 
sheep ; these are the salt of the earth, who, 
by doing each their little duty, as unto God, 
not unto men, keep society from decaying 
more than do all the constitutions and acts 
of parliament which statesmen ever invented. 
These are they — though they little dream of 
any such honor — who copy the likeness of the 
old martyrs, who did well and suffered for it, 
and the likeness of Christ, of whom it was 



i 4 4 



The Christian Graces. 



said, " He shall not strive nor cry, neither 
shall his voice be heard in the streets." 

Charles Kingsley. 



COURAGE, brother ! do not stumble, 
Though thy path be dark as night ; 
There's a star to guide the humble, — 
" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Let the road be rough and dreary, 

And its end far out of sight, 
Foot it bravely ! strong or weary, 

" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Perish policy and cunning ; 

Perish all that fears the light ; 
Whether losing, whether winning, 

" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Trust no party, sect, or faction ; 

Trust no leaders in the light ; 
But in every word and action 

" Trust in God, and do the right." 



The Christian Graces. 145 



Trust no lovely forms of passion : 
Fiends may look like angels bright ; 

Trust no custom, school, or fashion ; 
" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Simple rule, and safest guiding, 
Inward peace, and inward might, 

Star upon our path abiding, 

" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Some will hate thee, some will love thee, 
Some will flatter, some will slight : 

Cease from man, and look above thee ; 
" Trust in God, and do the right." 

Norman Macleod. 



DO not try only to abstain from sin, but 
strive, by God's grace, to gain the oppo- 
site grace. It thou wouldst save thyself from 
falling backward, thou wouldst throw thyself 
forward. If thou wouldst not slip back into 
sin, thou must stretch forward to Christ and 
10 



146 



The Christian Graces. 



i 



His holiness. It is a dull, heavy, dreary, mis- 
erable, toilsome way, just to avoid sin. It is 
to give up the miserable pleasure of sin, with- 
out receiving in return the heavenly pleasure 
of delight in God. It has nothing generous, 
nothing ennobling, nothing worthy of the price 
paid for us, nothing befitting what we have 
been made — the sons of God. Thou wouldst 
not simply not be impatient ; thou wouldst long 
to be like thy Lord, who was meek and lowly 
of heart. Thou wouldst not only not openly 
murmur ; thou wouldst surely long, like the 
beloved apostle, to rest on Jesus' breast, and 
will what He wills. 

Observe, as well as thou canst, the very ways 
in which thou yieldest to the sin — thine anger, 
impatience, or whatever else it be. Observe 
the very acts or words thou most often usest in 
giving vent to it. Thou wilt find, very likely, 
that it is some one, or some few ways of acting 
or speaking, into which thou fallest again and 
again. If thou art on thy guard, thou wilt 
often be able to stop the usual vent of thy sin ; 



The Christian Graces, 



147 



if thou stop this, thou wilt have gained time, 
by God's grace, to stop the sin too. 

Fix, by God's help, not only to root out this 
sin, but to set thyself to gain, by that same 
help, the opposite grace. If thou art tempted 
to be angry, try hard, by God's grace, to be 
very meek ; if to be proud, seek to be very 
humble. In this way, God, seeing thy earnest 
wish to please Him, will help thee more ; and 
thou wilt be further from the borders of sin, and 
so in less peril. 

It will help thee much in thy warfare, if thou 
first set before thy soul thy Lord, as He showed 
forth that grace which thou wouldst copy. If 
the grace be humility, think of Him washing 
the disciples' feet; if meekness, think of His 
receiving the traitor's kiss, and how thou hast 
betrayed Him by thy sins ; if it be patience 
under injuries, behold Him standing meekly 
while they buffeted, reviled, mocked, spat on 
Him ; if it be love of thy brother who offends 
thee, think of Him stretching out His hands 
upon the cross, and embracing the whole 



148 The Christian Graces. 



world, and thee too, with thy brother, in His 
love. There is no thought which has such 
power over the soul and over sin, as the 
thought of Jesus. Gaze on His meek coun- 
tenance, His eye full of love resting on thee, 
the suffering of His brow pierced for thee, and 
so ask Him for His love's sake, that thou mayst 
love Him, and be less unlike Him. 

As certainly as God is God, so certainly may 
ye have the victory if ye will. God has pledged 
to you His Almighty Word, as to your soul. 
Think not, "This is impossible, this is beyond 
me, I have always failed in this ; this fault is 
become part of my nature ; this ever surprises 
me. If I succeed for a while, it again over- 
takes me, it overpowers me, overwhelms me; 
I have no strength against it." 

True, very true, if it were thyself alone. It 
is not thou who art to overcome the world, 
within thee or without thee, but thy faith, 
which is the gift of God, and the grace of 
God, and the power of Christ within thee. 
The strong man will not give way to thce> 



The Christian Graces. 



149 



but he will give way to the power of Christ. 
Thou may st not see thy progress, nor, for a 
while, perhaps, may others see it; but strive 
on in humility, strive on as for thy life, and 
pray God that thou mayst strive on to the 
end, and thou canst not fail. 



Thou stream o'erflowing, pure and free ; 
The brightness of the cherubim, 
The glow of burning seraphim, 

Are darkness when compared with Thee. 
Be Thou my pattern bright, 
My study and delight, 
My All in AIL 
Oh, teach Thou me, that I may be 
All pure and holy, like to Thee. 



E. B. Pusey. 



H 



OLY JESUS, Fount of light ! 
As crystal clear, forever bright, 



Humble Jesus, self : denying, 

And with Thy Father's will complying, 



The Christian Graces. 



Yea, even unto death resigned, 
Let me, Thy humble path pursuing, 
And pride and haughtiness subduing, 
Be guided by Thy gentle mind. 
May I be ever mild, 
And humble as a child, 
And docile too ; 
Oh, teach Thou me, that I may be 
Meek and obedient like Thee. 

Crasselius. 



CHRISTIAN EFFORT. 



" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." — Matthew v. 16. 




(151) 



CHRISTIAN EFFORT. 



OR a man to be degraded, it is not neces- 



sary that he should have given himself up 
to low and mean practices. It is quite enough 
that he is living for purposes lower than those 
for which God intended him. He may be a 
man of unblemished reputation, and yet de- 
based in the truest meaning of the word. We 
were sent into this world to love God and to 
love man, to do good, to fill up life with deeds 
of generosity and usefulness. And he that 
refuses to work out that high destiny is a de- 
graded man. He may turn away revolted 
from everything that is gross. His sensuous 
indulgences may be all marked by refinement 
and taste. His house may be filled with 




(153) 



i54 



Christian Effort. 



elegance. . His library may be adorned with 
books. There may be the sounds in his man- 
sion which can regale the ear, the delicacies 
which can stimulate the palate, and the forms 
of beauty which can please the eye. There 
may be nothing in his whole life to offend the 
most chastened and fastidious delicacy ; and 
yet, if the history of all this be, powers frit- 
tered upon time which were meant for eternity, 
the man is degraded ; if the spirit w^hich was 
created to find its enjoyment in the love of 
God, has settled dow f n satisfied with the love 
of the world, then just as surely as the sensu- 
alist of the parable, that man has turned aside 
from a celestial feast to prey on garbage. 

F. W. Robertson. 



I DO not believe in the Christianity of him 
who would keep salvation to himself, who 
makes no effort to save others — those that are 
"ready to perish." The Christian's is another 
spirit than hers, yon proud beauty, who regards 



Christian Effort. 



155 



every rival with a jealous eye, — than that of 
him, a mean, selfish worldling, who slaves and 
saves, not only that he may be rich, but richer 
than all his neighbors. Grace expands every 
heart it purifies, and makes it burn with such 
love to man, as well as to God, that a true 
Christian — if not almost willing to be accursed 
that others may be saved— wishes all were as 
holy, and pious, and happy as himself. He 
would not shine a lonely star, nor fill a solitary 
throne in heaven. He is like a man who, 
plunged into a boiling sea, has reached a rock. 
He exerts himself to save others drowning at 
his feet, and, hanging on with one hand, 
reaches down the other to pluck them from the 
devouring waves. Blessed be God ! on our 
Rock, which is Christ, there is room for us, 
and room for others, and room for all. The 
cry rings out, "Yet there is room!" And 
since we have not one godless acquaintance, 
or neighbor, or friend, or member of our fam- 
ily, but needs to be saved, and may be saved, 
oh, with what divine wisdom, and love, and 



156 Christian Effort. 



patience should we labor to win them to Christ, 
and win ior ourselves this stany crown. They 
that are wise shall shine as the brightness of 
the firmament, and they that turn many to 
righteousness as the stars forever and ever ! 

Thomas Guthrie. 



SOMETHING, my God, for Thee, 
Something for Thee ; 
That each day's setting sun may bring 
Some penitential offering ; 
In Thy dear name some kindness done ; 
To Thy dear love some wanderer won ; 
Some trial meekly borne for Thee, 
Dear Lord, for Thee. 

Something, my God, for Thee, 

Something for Thee ; 
That to Thy gracious throne may rise 
Sweet incense from some sacrifice, — 
Uplifted eyes undimmed by tears, 
Uplifted faith unstained by fears, 
Hailing each joy as light from Thee, 

Dear Lord, from Thee. 



Christian Effort. 



157 



Something, my God, for Thee, 

Something for Thee ; 
For the great love that Thou hast given, 
For the great hope of Thee and heaven, 
My soul her first allegiance brings, 
And upward plumes her heavenward wings, 
" Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee." 



*E are not a race of independent crea- 



▼ ▼ tures, abandoned to live without con- 
trol ; we are not sent into the world to follow 
the dictates of our own will. We cannot com- 
mit a greater mistake than to suppose that we 
are in any sense our own; we belong to anoth- 
er : even our limbs and faculties do not so much 
belong to ourselves as we do to our Maker. To 
do His will, to conform to His pleasure, to keep 
His commandments, to fulfil His designs, to 
serve the end of His government, and to pro- 
mote His glory, — these are the great ends of 
our existence ; and to attain them ought to be 




Christian Effort. 



the fundamental law of our being : otherwise 
we live in vain — worse than in vain ; and it 
would have been better for us never to have 
had an existence. 

There is one great principle of a holy life 
which is one and the same in all who live as 
they ought, and that is, conforming ourselves 
to the will of God, complying with His plan, 
doing everything to please and glorify Him. 
Thus our Saviour Himself, when in this world, 
was devoted to His Father's will ; this was His 
object constantly, even when observed by those 
around Him. It cannot be better exemplified 
than in that beautiful saying of His, when He 
was requested to take refreshment at the well 
of Jacob, ?f I have meat to eat that the world 
knoweth not of; my meat is to do the will of 
Him that sent me, and finish His work:" and 
it is doing the will of God from the heart, 
which implies a careful attention to all the 
manifestations of it, and a reverential regard 
to all the discoveries of it, with a fixed and 
determined resolution to comply with it when- 



Christian Effort. 



159 



ever and wherever it is known. This, as I 
said, is the end of our existence, the business 
of our life ; and we live to no purpose, or to 
a bad one, but as we conform to it. But, al- 
though this is the universal principle by which 
all are to be actuated and guided, yet it admits 
of great and numerous variations in its practi- 
cal application. The principle is the same ; 
but when it comes to be acted upon by indi- 
viduals, and embodied in the experience and 
conduct of men in the several conditions of 
life, it gives birth to an endless diversity. To 
do the will of God., and to promote His glory, 
is the proper object and end of all : but the 
manner in which an apostle, for instance, was 
called upon to do this, is not that in which an 
ordinary teacher is to do it ; nor the manner of 
an ordinary teacher that of a private Christian. 
The duties of a sovereign are extremely differ- 
ent from those of his ministers and officers of 
state; and those again, from the duties of in- 
ferior magistrates ; and of magistrates, from 
those of private subjects. Of the rich it is 



i6o 



Christian Effort. 



required to do good, and to communicate, and 
to sustain the cause of God and truth in the 
world, to support public institutions of a chari- 
table and beneficial nature, and freely to dis- 
tribute of their abundance to the necessities of 
their fellow-creatures ; of the poor, to be pru- 
dent, diligent, careful ; and so on. 

In the principles of human nature, and in 
the powers and faculties of our bodies and 
senses, there is a general agreement : yet no 
two individuals of the human race are alike ; 
and the same variety exists in moral arrange- 
ments. In the elements which compose the 
principle of holiness, the essential ingredients 
are the same ; but when they come to be ap- 
plied and embodied in a right course of action, 
they often seem widely different. Although 
the end is the same in all, yet the manner in 
which this end is viewed will be various ; the 
rays of light, when blended in day, are simple 
and of a uniform color ; but when they are 
refracted through a prism, they exhibit all the 
colors of the rainbow. Such are the principles 



Christian Effort. 



161 



of holiness, and their diversified action in indi- 
viduals ; but it is doing the will of God in all ; 
this, this is the object, the grand vital princi- 
ple, that animates good men in all ages, in all 
circumstances, of all classes and denomina- 
tions. This is the true catholic spirit, which 
unites all the members of the true church ; and 
in proportion as men live well, and live for 
eternity, this is the ruling and governing prin- 
ciple — to glorify God. 

Robert Hall. 



IT is an easy thing to say, 
u Thou knowest that I love thee, Lord ; " 
And easy, in the bitter fray, 

For His defence to draw the sword. 

But when at His dear hands we seek 

Some lofty trust for Him to keep, 
To our ambition, vain and weak, 

How strange His bidding, " Feed my sheep ! " 
II 



l62 



Christian Effoi't. 



" Too mean a task for love," we cry, 
Remembering not, if in our pride 

We pass His humble service by, 
Our vows are by our deeds denied. 

O Father ! help us to resign 

Our hearts, our strength, our wills to Thee : 
Then, even lowliest work of Thine, 

Most noble, blest, and sweet will be. 

H. M. Kimball. 



PIRITUAL religion is at once the grand- 



est and the simplest thing with which men 
have to do. It is at once the most arduous and 
the most easy of all their attainments. It is 
most arduous, because the man of highest fac- 
ulty must stir up all that is within him in order 
to its achievement; it is the most easy, because 
the man of simplest mind — following the same 
rule with regard to his own far poorer faculties 
— will certainly achieve it. The science of re- 
ligion may be mastered, and the work of prac- 




Christian Effort. 



163 



tical religion may be done, by any one who 
will put his heart to the science and his hand 
to the work. It is not so with the sciences and 
arts generally. There are continually men 
relinquishing studies, professions, works, for 
which they are found not suited. There are 
branches of philosophy of which some men 
never could be masters. They lack the faculty 
and the fitness. All their endeavors, how- 
ever honestly and vigorously made, are but 
elongated drudgery. There are certain arts 
equally beyond some men's power of achieve- 
ment. They lack the sentient faculty, and 
no amount of education or effort will supply 
it. Mental science ! It is to some men a mere 
heap of puzzling terms and attributes. Moral 
philosophy ! It is to some men one of the 
surest means of perplexing and bewildering 
the simple sense of right and wrong. Paint- 
ing ! That man's eye could never perceive 
the delicacies and shadings of color, still less, 
perhaps, could his hand lay them on the can- 
vas. Music ! There are some souls into 



164 



Christian Effort. 



which its harmonies never seem to enter : they 
only make a noise outside ; as certainly there 
are fingers hard by nature, or stiffened with 
toil, which could never educe that harmony 
from the instruments. But in this, the finest 
of all the arts, the noblest of all the sciences, 
not one shall fail who honestly endeavors. 
Unlettered and unknown, poor and pressed 
down by toils and cares, a man may yet rear 
a structure which shall stand in strength and 
beauty through eternal ages. He could not 
carve a figure, or chisel a statue, but he can 
build a living temple. He could not paint a 
picture for his house, bat he can hang the 
living virtues upon the inner walls of his soul. 
He could not number or name the powers of 
his own mind, but he can set them all upon 
their noblest objects. He is bewildered amid 
the distinctions of philosophy, but at home in 
the doctrines of God. He is lost, it may be, 
amid the ignoble throng, while the great ones 
of this world roll past him, bright in the splen- 
dors of an evanescent life ; but a great crowd 



Christian Effort. 



of celestial witnesses have him in survey, and 
there is a crown and a kingdom awaiting him 
above. Our God hides these things from the 
wise and prudent, and reveals them unto babes. 
This is the one thing necessary to success — 
the disposition and spirit of the little child. 
"Am I humble, teachable, very anxious to 
learn? Then I shall be taught of God, built 
up in spiritual goodness, and made a living 
and eternal monument to His praise. 

We cannot be too thankful for this blessed 
and gracious certainty — the certainty that all 
earnest souls must prosper. God has so con- 
structed the world, and He rules it so, that they 
must. He has so established His own king- 
dom here, with all its powers and helps, and 
dwells so in the heart by His Spirit, that they 
must. Not one faileth. Let a man say, any- 
where in all the world, "I will arise and build," 
laying the edifice of his life on the deep and 
broad foundation of God in Christ, and pur- 
suing the work in humble dependence, and yet 
with a good courage, — that man is invincible, 



Christian Effort. 



and his work stands in the strength of God. 
There may be beating rains, and swelling 
floods, and wild blowing winds, — the work 
will go on through them all ; the house, or 
rather the temple, will stand in spite of 
them all. 

Alexander Raleigh. 



BE sure no earnest work 
Of any honest creature, howbeit weak, 
Imperfect, ill adapted, fails so much, 
It is not gathered as a grain of sand 
To enlarge the sum of human action used 
For carrying out God's end. No creature works 
So ill, observe, that therefore he's cashiered. 
The honest, earnest man must stand and work ; 
The woman also ; otherwise she drops 
At once below the dignity of man, 
Accepting serfdom. Free men freely work : 
Whoever fears God, fears to sit at ease. 

O cousin, let us be content, in work, 

To do the thing we can, and not presume 



Christian Effort. 



167 



To fret because it's little. 'Twill employ 

Seven men, they say, to make a perfect pin : 

Who makes the head, content to miss the point ; 

Who makes the point, agreed to leave the join : 

And if a man should cry, " I want a pin, 

And I must make it straightway, head and point," 

His wisdom is not worth the pin he wants. 

" We must be here to work ; 
And men who work can only work for men, 
And, not to work in vain, must comprehend 
Humanity, and so, work humanly, 
And raise men's bodies still by raising souls, 
As God did, first." 

" But stand upon the earth," 
I said, " to raise them — (this is human too ; 
There's nothing high which has not first been low ; 
My humbleness, said One, has made me great) — 
As God did, last." 

" And work all silently, 
And simply," he returned, " as God does all ; 
Distort our nature never, for our work, 
Nor count our right hands stronger for being hoofs ; 
The man most man, with tenderest human hands, 
Works best for men, — as God in Nazareth." 

Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



i68 



Christian Effort. 



HROUGH all God's kingdoms we trace 



JL variety, and still we find it when we rise 
to the minds of men. There is endless diver- 
sity in their nature, and for every form and 
style abundant use : and it is best when they 
are not transposed. Melancthon would have 
made a poor substitute for Luther ; but the 
absence of Melancthon would have left it a 
poorer Reformation. Although Jeremy Taylor 
and John Bunyan had each a fine fancy, the 
world is now agreed that if they had changed 
places, they could have made it no better; we 
are quite content with the Pilgrim of the one 
and the Golden Grove of the other. 

Sanguine and non-sympathetic natures insist 
that every one, if he likes, may do the things 
which they not only do, but do so easily. To 
a man like Lord Thurlow, — coarse, and con- 
temptuous of mankind, — it must have been a 
simple amazement when his kinsman Cowper 
resigned the clerkship of the Lords, because 
he had not courage to read aloud minutes and 




Christian Effort. 



169 



petitions ; but, although the brazen chancellor 
was a stranger to all trepidation, and it would 
have cost him no effort to read his own rhymes 
to the peers of Parnassus, it may be questioned 
if, even to secure the Great Seal, he could have 
written the "Task" or "John Gilpin." And 
although nothing can be more true than that 
talents increase by trading, it is also true that 
their right investment — the sort of trade best 
suited to each merchantman — is indicated by 
the natural turn or faculty ; and we shall serve 
God and our generation best by turning to ac- 
count the gift which He Himself has given. 
You who are fond of children, — as most frank, 
true natures are, — give yourself to teaching; 
and you who have a fervid, forceful spirit, and 
find that spirit stirred by the state of our god- 
less multitude, go out into the highways and 
hedges, and compel them to come in. And 
you who cannot arrest or keep the children's ear, 
and to whom aught like preaching would be 
useless martyrdom, seek out some other minis- 
try, consecrate the business talent, and in the 



170 



Christian Effort. 



savings bank or provident fund, in the committee 
or council of the church, "rule with diligence," 
or go forth and visit. The tired watcher in the 
sick room release for a few hours of needful' 
slumber. Take to the bed-ridden child some 
plaything, to the destitute family some comfort. 
And whether you offer the brief prayer, or read 
the words of Jesus to the invalid, "show mercy 
with cheerfulness try to do it as if you came 
and went in Christ's own company; and then, 
long after you have left, the consolation w r ill 
remain. 

It is thus that, by each following out his own 
line of things, the world's best work has been 
done ; and in the free development and loving 
consecration of gifts the church has exhibited 
a diversity both useful and beautiful. It was 
thus that, wherever John MacDonald w^ent in 
perambulating the Highlands, a wave of spirit- 
ual influence w r ent with him ; and it was thus 
that, like a Baptist and a beloved disciple com- 
bined, George Whitefield started and melted all 
England. It is thus that, in our own day, one 



Christian Effort. 



Christian lady has sought out the prisoner, and 
another has softened and civilized the neglected 
navvy, and a third has mended r " ragged homes," 
and a fourth has invented the Bible and Domes- 
tic Mission, and a fifth has rallied to the task 
of nursing — so arduous, yet so angel-like — ■ 
the refined and well-trained amongst her coun- 
trywomen. And it is thus that, in an employ- 
ment however commonplace, and in a corner 
however inconspicuous, if you take up the task 
which your hand finds to do, and throw into it 
the might which God gives, the result will be 
genuine, solid, enduring. Let each do his own 
work in his own way, and, as all good work is 
God's, you will soon see it a more beautiful 
church and a better world. 

We remember Dr. N. Murray, the famous 
ff Kir wan " of America, mentioning that in his 
youth he met an old disciple, ninety-one years 
of age ; and, in taking leave, the venerable pil- 
grim left with his young friend a charge, which 
he had never forgotten : "Do all the good you 
can, to all the people you can, in all the ways 



172 



Christian Effort. 



you can, and as long as you can." If that rule 
were carried out by each Christian, it would 
soon change the face of society. If you, who 
are the Christian member of the family, were 
setting a watch over your lips, and were in 
all things wise, gentle, obliging, self-denying, 
high-toned, few in the household could with- 
stand the quiet, persistent sermon ; and if the 
Christian households of the land were as peace- 
ful as they are pure, — if the several inmates 
were fair-minded, kind-hearted, mutually help- 
ful, — if, in the school, the market, the social 
gathering, the various members lived up to the 
level of their morning and evening worship, — 
there would soon be poor chance for the infi- 
del ; apologetics might become an obsolete 
science ; with such a church in every house, 
the synagogue of Satan would disappear from 
the land. 

James Hamilton. 



Christian Effort. 



173 



CHRISTIAN, canst thou idly loiter, 
Fold thine hands, and sit at ease ? 
While all round thee work is waiting, 
Dost thou strive thyself to please ? 

Though the sun shines o'er thy pathway, 
Many faint beneath the storm ; 

Hast thou not some words of comfort, 
Deeds of love for those who mourn ? 

Jesus sought the sad and burdened, 

When from heaven to earth He came ; 

Dost thou call Him Lord and Master ? 
Dost thou bear His holy name ? 

Then arise, and seek to follow 
Where the voice of duty leads ; 

Give thyself to works of mercy, 
Loving thoughts and kindly deeds. 

C. A. Means. 

IT is one of the first principles of our religion, 
one of the elementary truths of Christianity, 
that "He who was rich for our sakes became 
poor, that we through His poverty might be 



174 



Christian Effort. 



made rich." ?f Let the same mind be in you." 
You who are possessed of property, devote that 
in the way it becomes the servants of so divine 
a Master. Consider the use He would have 
made of that portion of this world's good, 
which He declined as an example of patience 
and humility. Consider to what purpose He 
employed His heavenly powers; and to the 
same purpose employ your natural advantages 
and civil resources. 

Never was any one so exalted as our Saviour, 
and never did any one make such a use of his 
exaltation. He shrouded it in the deep veil of 
'humanity; he concealed it from the view of the 
world. None but the piercing eye of faith, 
illuminated by the Spirit of God, could behold 
it. The world knew Him not. We beheld 
His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten 
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Do 
you, then, my brethren, employ your influence 
in that manner. Never make it the means of 
keeping at a distance from you the poor, the 
distressed, and the afflicted. "Mind not high 



Chi'istian Effort. 



175 



things, but condescend to men of low estate." 
"Look not every man on his own things, but 
every man also on the things of others." Do 
not dwell on the contemplation of your own great- 
ness. Do not separate yourselves from your 
fellow-creatures. Do not suffer yourselves to 
be hedged in and fenced round from them by the 
riches of this world, but communicate them to 
others, and pray for the blessing of God upon 
the right use of them, that they may turn to 
incorruptible riches and righteousness ; that 
these perishing riches and this evil mammon 
may not seduce you from the right way to the 
everlasting mansions. If you are not faithful 
over a little, how shall you be faithful over 
much? and if you are not faithful to that which 
is the property of God, who lends it to you for 
a time, but gives to none a discretionary use of 
it, how shall He give you " that crown of 
righteousness that fadeth not away," that glory 
which will be a part of your nature, which will 
satisfy your souls, and make you great, and 
happy, and blessed, to all eternity? 

Robert Hall. 



176 



Christian Effort. 



N'OT only when in poverty 
We sink beneath our load of care, 
And drag the cross we cannot bear, 
As did our Lord on Calvary, — 

But when the stores of wealth are poured 
Around us by Thy liberal grace, 
Lest what Thou givest hide Thy face, 

Oh, then, deliver us, good Lord ! 

E. C. Porter. 



ARGELY Thou givest, gracious Lord, 



I *s Largely Thy gifts should be restored ; 
Freely Thou givest, and Thy word 

Is, " Freely give." " 
He only, who forgets to hoard, 
Has learned to live. 



ALL other vices," Dr. Luther says, "bring 
their pleasures ; but the wretched, ava- 
ricious man is the slave of his goods, not 




Keble. 



I 

! 



Christian Effoi't. 



177 



their master ; he enjoys neither this world nor 
the next. Here he has purgatory, and there 
hell ; while faith and content bring rest to the 
soul here, and afterwards bring the soul to 
heaven. For the avaricious lack what they 
have, as well as what they have not." 

Gottfried and I want the children to learn 
early that pure joy of giving, and of doing 
kindnesses, which transmutes wealth from dust 
into true gold, and prevents these possessions, 
which are such good servants, from becoming 
our masters, and reducing us, as they seem to 
do so many wealthy people, into the mere 
slaves and hired guardians of things. 

Is not gold what we make it? Dust in the 
miser's chests, canker in the proud man's 
heart; but golden sunbeams, streams of bless- 
ing, earned by a child's labor and comforting a 
parent's heart, or lovingly poured from rich 
men's hands into poor men's homes. 

Mrs. Charles. 



12 



i 7 8 



Christian Effort. 



THAT each one ought to give, or the 



» » manner in which he ought to give it, is 
for him to settle with the Lord ; the gospel has 
not prescribed in such matters ; it has been left 
with your charity. Justify this confidence. 
Raise yourself above cold custom, and make 
your account not with men but with Jesus 
Christ. Be not satisfied with the exclamation, 
"That is well done." Be filled with the 
thought that your fortune belongs to Him more 
than to you, and that j t ou are appointed to 
administer it in His name. Remember the 
words of Christ: "It is more blessed to give 
than to receive ; " and give like a man who 
feels that even giving is a favor which God has 
accorded to him. Congratulate yourself upon 
living in a time when occasions for giving prof- 
itably are increasing. Blessed is he who can 
at the same time respond to the appeal of the 
age, to the appeal of mankind, to the appeal of 
the Lord, and to the appeal of his own heart, 
but of a heart animated by charity. 




Christian Effort. 



179 



For you who are rich, this is a happiness 
exceeding all others. Learn then to enjoy 
your fortune. Understand why God has given 
it to you. Spend it for His glory as long as 
you live ; and forget not in your last will Him 
to whom you owe your temporal and eternal 
inheritance. Of what use are your riches, if 
you make them not the means of doing good, 
if you are not "rich in good works, ready to 
distribute, willing to communicate"? Then 
alone will you be happy in being rich, and the 
world happy in that you are so. Then this 
prosperity, which has destroyed so many others, 
will be for you a means of making your " call- 
ing and election sure." Then, in parting with 
your earthly treasures, you will remember with 
joy that}'ou have sown in the field of the Lord, 
where you will reap many fold ; and, like the 
charitable man of whom we read, you may 
cause to be written on your tomb, "What I 
kept, I lost; what I gave away, I retained." 

Adolphe Monod. 



x8o 



Christian Effort. 



OH, if this living soul, that many a time 
Above the low things of the earth doth climb, 
Up to the mountain top of faith sublime, 
If she could only stay 
In that high place alway, 
And hear, in reverence bowed, 
God's voice behind the cloud ; — 

Or if, descending to the earth again, 
Its lesson in the heart might still remain ; 
If we could keep the vision clear and plain, 

Nor let one jot escape, 

So that we still might shape 

Our lives to deeds sublime 

By that exalted time ; — 

Ah ! what a world were ours to journey through ! 
What deeds of love and mercy we should do ; 
Making our lives so beautiful and true, 

That in our face would shine 

The light of love divine, 

Showing that we had stood 

Upon the mount of God. 

Phoebe Cary. 



Christian Effort. 181 



" A M I to understand you, then, that inter- 
Jl\* course with one's neighbors ought to 
take the place of meditation ? " 

" By no means ; but ought to go side by side 
with it, if you would have at once a healthy 
mind to judge, and the means of either verify- 
ing your speculations or discovering their 
falsehood." 

" But where am I to find such friends, 
besides yourself, with whom to hold spiritual 
communion? " 

"It is the communion of spiritual deeds — 
deeds of justice, of mercy, of humility — the 
kind word, the cup of cold water, the visitation 
in sickness, the lending of money — not spirit- 
ual conference or talk, that I mean; the latter 
will come of itself where it is natural. You 
w T ould soon find that it is not only to those 
whose spiritual windows are of the same shape 
as your own that you are neighbor. There is 
one poor man in my congregation who knows 
more — practically, I mean, too — of spiritu- 



l82 



Christian Effort. 



ality of mind than any of us. Perhaps you 
could not teach him much, but he could teach 
you. At all events, our neighbors are just 
those round about us ; and the most ignorant 
man in a little place like Marsh mallows, one 
like you, with leisure, ought to know and un- 
derstand, and have some good influence upon : 
he is your brother, whom you are bound to care 
for and elevate, — I do not mean socially, but 
re-ally, in himself, — if it be possible. You 
ought at least to get into some simple human 
relation with him, as you would with the 
youngest and most ignorant of your brothers 
and sisters, born of the same father and mother ; 
approaching him, not with pompous lecturing 
or fault-finding, still less with that abomination 
called condescension, but with the humble ser- 
vice of the elder to the younger, in whatever 
he may be helped by you without injury to 
him. Never was there a more injurious mis- 
take than that it is the business of the clergy 
only to have the care of souls." 

" But that would be endless. It would leave 
me no time for myself." 



Christian Effort. 



i8 3 



f? Would that be no time for yourself spent in 
leading a noble, Christian life; in verifying the 
words of our Lord by doing them ; in building 
your house on the rock of action instead of the 
sands of theory ; in widening your own being 
by entering into the nature, thoughts, feelings, 
even fancies of those around you? In such 
intercourse you would find health radiating into 
your own bosom ; healing sympathies spring- 
ing up in the most barren acquaintance ; chan- 
nels opened for the in-rush of truth into your 
own mind ; and opportunities afforded for the 
exercise of that self-discipline, the lack of 
which led to the failures which you now 
bemoan. 

" Nothing, I repeat, so much as humble min- 
istration to your neighbors, will help you to 
that perfect love of God which casteth out fear ; 
nothing but the love of God — that God re- 
vealed in Christ — will make you able to love 
your neighbor aright; and the Spirit of God, 
which alone gives might for any good, will, by 
these loves, which are life, strengthen you at 



184 



Christian Effort. 



last to believe in the light even in the midst of 
darkness ; to hold the resolution formed in 
health when sickness has altered the appear- 
ance of everything around you ; and to feel 
tenderly towards your fellow, even when you 
yourself are plunged in dejection or racked 
with pain." 

George MacDonald. 



OUR Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, 
What may Thy service be ? 
Not name, nor form, nor ritual word, 
But simply following Thee. 

We bring no ghastly holocaust, 

We pile no graven stone : 
He serves Thee best who loveth most 

His brothers and Thy own. 

Thy litanies, sweet offices 

Of love and gratitude ; 
Thy sacramental liturgies, 

The joy of doing good. 



Christian Effort, 



185 



In vain shall waves of incense drift 

The vaulted nave around, 
In vain the minster turret lift 

Its brazen weights of sound. 

The heart must ring Thy Christmas bells, 

Thy inward altars raise ; 
Its faith and hope Thy canticles, 

And its obedience praise. 

J. G. Whittier. 

NO man liveth unto himself. Every man is 
living for others, always and everywhere. 
A good man, in active life and services, 
lives consciously and voluntarily for others. 
But in his most passive moods, in his most 
helpless times, in places most abstracted from 
public view, he is not living unto himself — 
may be living for others more powerfully than 
ever before. The God of our life not only 
protects that life through the whole course of 
its personal development, be that development 
in "height or depth," but often, unknown 



i86 



Christian Effort* 



to us, he fills it with unsuspected uses, and 
draws out of it powers and lessons for other 
lives and for after-ages. John Bunyan preach- 
ing and itinerating is manifestly one of God's 
"powers of the world to come" among men. 
But shut the door of Bedford jail on him, and 
(so his persecutors judge ; so also his friends 
fear) he is no better than a dead man. Dead ! 
It is then he begins to live ; by his cheerful 
patience through twelve long years, to his peo- 
ple near; by his writings, to posterity and the 
world. 

Alexander Raleigh. 



THERE are many grounds on which men 
come to be remembered after the grave 
has closed upon their coffins, and their souls 
have returned to God. A great picture, a 
noble poem, a righteous law, — these have per- 
petuated through centuries the name of artist, 
poet, or statesman ; but fame of this kind is 
beyond the reach of most men. I can tell you 



Christian Effort. 



187 



of honors which shine with a still brighter and 
more enduring lustre, and which will lose none 
of their splendor when the art and literature of 
the world have perished, and when constitu- 
tions and laws, w T ith the nations they blessed, 
shall have been dissolved forever. You may 
write your names on tablets more lasting than 
marble — on the grateful memory of human 
hearts, which shall bless you through- eternity 
for the consolation you brought them, w r hen, in 
their despair, they were ready to curse God 
and die ; for the timely help which saved them 
not only from suffering, but from sin. It is 
" hard for a rich man to enter into the king- 
dom of heaven ; " but it is easy for him to clothe 
the naked, to feed the hungry, to provide in- 
struction for the ignorant, to send the gospel to 
the homes and hearts of men. And by doing 
this he will become safe from the dangers 
which riches bring with them, for, "Blessed is 
he that considereth the poor ; " his " secret " 
alms shall be "rewarded openly;" his " right- 
eousness endureth forever." 

R. W. Dale. 



i88 



Christian Effort. 



BE brave, my brother ! 
He whom thou serves! slights 
Not even His weakest one ; 
No deed, though poor, shall be forgot, 

However feebly done ; 
The prayer, the wish, the thought, 

The faintly-spoken word, 
The plan that seemed to come to nought, 
Each has its own reward. 

Be brave, my brother ! 
Enlarge thy heart and soul ; 

Spread out thy free, glad love ; 
Encompass earth, embrace the sea, 

As does the sky above ; 
Let no man see thee stand 

In slothful idleness, 
As if there were no work for thee 

In such a wilderness. 

Be brave, my brother ! 
Stint not the liberal hand ; 
Give in the joy of love : 



Christian Effort. 



So shall thy crown be bright, and great 

Thy recompense above ; 
Reward not like the deed, 

That poor, weak deed of thine, 
But like the God Himself who gives, 

Eternal and divine. 

H. BONAR. 



CHRISTIAN earnestness is not mere vehe- 
mence and heat. It is essential that it be 
informed with full intelligence — : _"zeal accord- 
ing to knowledge." The difference between 
fanaticism and zeal is chiefly a difference in 
knowledge. All beneficent energies are actu- 
ated by truth. 

Christian earnestness is wise and thoughtful 
in the application of knowledge, in the judg- 
ment of persons, events, times, and seasons ; 
and while it seeks its ends with great steadi- 
ness, it does not rush on them blindly, at all 
risks. 

Christian earnestness is very patient. While 



190 



Christian Effort. 



working all its forces, it learns to wait. It 
suffers disappointment, and labors on. It sees 
the expected harvest fail, and begins to sow 
again. Jesus saw all men, His very disciples, 
go away from Him, and yet went up to Calvary 
to die. In one word, Christian earnestness is 
a reproduction in our hearts of the tender and 
undying compassion of the heart of Christ. It 
is Christ living on in us, and working on for 
man's salvation. He who objects to a full- 
hearted earnestness must object to Jesus Christ, 
and to the plan of redemption by Him, and to 
the lives of the apostles, and to the constancy 
of the martyrs, and to the songs of the angels, 
and to all the gladness and glory of heaven. 



HE woman singeth, at her spinning-wheel, 



JL A pleasant chant, ballad, or barcarolle. 
She thinketh of her song, upon the whole, 
Far more than of her flax ; and yet the reel 
Is full, and artfully her fingers feel 



Alexander Raleigh. 




Christian Effort. 



191 



With quick adjustment, provident control, 
The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll, 
Out to a perfect thread. I hence appeal 
To the dear Christian church, that we may do 
Our Father's business, in these temples murk, 
Thus swift and steadfast, thus intent and strong ; 
While, thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue 
Some high, calm, spheric tune, and prove our work 
The better for the sweetness of our song. 

Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH. 



"I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me." — Phil. iv. 13. 




(193) 



THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH. 



E may be very weak, our talents very 



V ▼ few, our opportunities seemingly still 
fewer ; but our success does not depend upon 
our own force, or genius, or influence. It is 
God's blessing that gives the increase. With- 
out it, the mighty demonstrations of Paul and 
the burning eloquence of Apollos would have 
been in vain. With it, the simplest child in 
the school of Christ can overturn citadels of 
error, and build up the waste places of many 
generations. Compared with each other, some 
men may appear great, and the rest small ; 
but, compared with God, as He looks down 
from the height that knows no measure, and 




(195) 



196 The Source of Strength. 



compared with the immense difficulties in the 
way of His cause, all are worms of the dust, 
whose strength is that of the moth. 

God does not need our strength to accom- 
plish His purposes, though He is pleased gra- 
ciously to employ us in His service. The 
united church could not, of itself, make a 
single blade of grass to grow, much less 
convert a single soul. Omnipotence is needed 
to do either, and omnipotence is His own, and 
was His own before ever a human heart beat, 
a human sinew was stretched, or a human 
mind thought. The strongest among us is 
utterly impotent for any good work ; but the 
weakest among us is mighty, if he work with 
God. "Without me ye can do nothing," saith 
the Saviour. "I can do all things through 
Christ strengthening me," said His apostle. If 
we think to be efficient causes of good our- 
selves, we shall be disappointed. If we are 
willing to be instruments in the hands of God, 
we can accomplish anything He pleases, for 
the power will be His, not ours. The weaker, 



The Source of Strength. 197 



then, we feel ourselves to be, the better for our 
success, if we try to do good ; because God 
will put His strength in us only as we put 
reliance upon our own strength out of us. 

G. W. Bethune. 



WHEN prayer delights thee least, then learn 
to say, 

Soul, now is greatest need that thou shouldst pray. 

Crooked and warped I am, and I would fain 
Straighten myself by thy right line again. 

O come, warm sun, and ripen my late fruits ; 
Pierce, genial showers, down to my parched roots. 

My well is bitter : cast therein the tree, 

That sweet henceforth its brackish waves may be. 

Say, what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed ? 
The mighty utterance of a mighty need. 

The man is praying who doth press with might 
Out of his darkness into God's own light. 



198 The Source of Strength. 



White heat the iron in the furnace won ; 
Withdrawn from thence, 'twas cold and hard anon. 

Flowers from their stalks divided presently 
Droop, fail, and wither in the gazer's eye. 

The greenest leaf, divided from its stem, 
To speedy withering doth itself condemn. 

The largest river, from its fountain head 
Cut off, leaves soon a parched and dusty bed. 

All things that live from God their sustenance wait, 
And sun and rnoon are beggars at His gate. 

All skirts extended of thy mantle hold, 

When angel hands from heaven are scattering gold. 

R. C. Trench. 



E want to have everything sealed and 



V V settled, and written down in unalterable 
decrees and irreversible title-deeds, forgetting 
that deeds and decrees are of value simpty 
because the people who made them may die or 




The Source of Strength. 199 



change; while the grand security of the gifts 
of God is, that it is God who gives them. 
The Giver lives forever, and is always at 
hand. I do not think He will give us any 
other securit}'. I am sure we can have none 
so strong. 

Unbelief, like Eve, craves a security inde- 
pendent of God. But independence of God is 
death; and faith, accepting the living God as 
the security of His own promises, finds in such 
dependence not only security, but life. Unbe- 
lief would have some sentence, some irrevo- 
cable decision, to build on. God gives us no 
such poor abstractions to rest on apart from 
Him. His promises are all personal, all made 
to present faith. He says, "My sheep shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them out 
of my hand." "I will never leave thee, nor 
forsake thee." " What shall separate us from 
the love of Christ?" And if the cold heart, 
seeking security against itself, asks, " But 'can 
I pluck myself out of Thy hand? Can I ever 
forsake Thee? Though neither things present, 



200 



The Source of Strength. 



nor things to come, nor life, nor death, can 
separate, may not sin ? " Still no answer 
comes but, " I love, I keep. Abide in Me." 

If we seek for one promise to -past faith, for 
one word of encouragement to any except 
those who are turning to God, we may search 
the Bible through in vain. Turn to God, all is 
light. Turn from Him, all is shade — your 
own shadow. God gives no promises except 
to faith, and to faith in exercise. 

But if the trembling, clinging heart, weeping 
over its own weakness, asks the same question, 
"Can I ever pluck myself from Thy hand? 
Can I ever forsake Thee ? " it is still the same 
answer, but in a tone of tender pity, which 
changes it into the most enrapturing assurance, 
— " Abide in Me. I love, I keep." 

To strong faith this is absolute assurance. 
To feeble faith no stronger assurance can be 
given. If all the ingenuity of all the divines in 
the world were taxed to find a formula stating 
in abstract terms the security of the believer, 
despondency would baffle them all, and be sure 



The Source of Strength. 201 



to find some flaw to exclude itself. Therefore, 
I think, God takes another way, and draws the 
trembling, doubting, desponding heart, through 
the very destitution of security, to Himself; to 
the security which is safety, whether it is felt 
to be so or not, and which, when it is felt to be 
safety, is life and joy besides ; to the fortress 
of the Father's house, to the sanctuary of the 
Father's heart. 

And once there, what child would not smile 
at all the security of documents, — weeping on 
His bosom, "I would rather trust Thee." 

God will not suffer us to rest on things, on 
words, on anything in our past, on anything 
even in His promises, afart from Himself. 

Restoration to God is the very end and 
object for which we are redeemed. " Thou 
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." 
And God loves us too truly to suffer that any- 
thing shall be a substitute for living, loving 
communion with Himself. 

Mrs. Charles. 



202 " The Source of Strength. 



SAVIOUR, I lift my trembling eyes 
To that bright seat, where, placed on high, 
The great, the atoning Sacrifice, 
For me, for all, is ever nigh. 

Be Thou my Guard on peril's brink ; 

Be Thou my Guide through weal or woe ; 
And teach me of Thy cup to drink, 

And make me in Thy path to go. 

For what is earthly change or loss ? 

Thy promises are still my own : 
The feeblest frame may bear Thy cross, 

The lowliest spirit share Thy throne. 

M. G. T. 



ANOTHER source of contentment, which 
in youth's fierce self-dependence it would 
be vain to look for, is the recognition of one's 
own comparative unimportance and helpless- 
ness in the scale of fate. We begin by think- 
ing we can do everything, and that everything 



The Source of Strength. 203 



rests with us to do ; the merest trifle frets and 
disturbs us ; the restless heart wearies itself 
w 7 ith anxieties over its own future, the tender 
one over the futures of those dear to it. Many 
a young face do I see wearing the indescriba- 
ble Martha look, — " troubled about many 
things," — whom I would fain remind of the 
anecdote of the ambassador in China. To 
him, tossing, sleepless, on his bed, his old 
servant said, — 

"Sir, may I put to you, and will you answer, 
three questions? First, did not the Almighty 
govern this world very well before you came 
into it?" 

"Of course." 

"And will He not also do the same when 
you are gone out of it ? " 
"I know that." 

"Then do you not think, sir, that He is able 
to govern it while you are in it ? " 

The ambassador smiled assent, turned round, 
and slept calmly. 

Alas ! it is the slowest and most painful 



204 The Source of Strength. 



lesson that Faith has to learn. Faith, not 
indifference, to do steadfastly and patiently all 
that lies to her hand ; and there leave it, be- 
lieving that the Almighty is able to govern 
His own world. 

Mrs. Craik. 



PEACE, troubled soul ! Thou need'st not fear : 
Thy great Protector still is near ; 
He who has fed will feed thee still ; 
Be calm, and sink into His will. 
Who hears the ravens when they cry- 
Will all His children's needs supply. 

Peace, doubting heart ! Distrust not God : 

Though dark the valley, steep the way, 

Still lean upon His staff and rod, 

Still make His providence thy stay ; 

A sudden calm thy soul shall fill ; 

'Tis God who whispers, Peace, be still ! 

Hymns of the Ages. 



The Source of Strength. 



205 



VERY highest human act is just a giving 



J— ' back to God of that which He first gave 
to us. " Thou, God, hast given me : here again 
is Thy gift. I send my spirit home." Every 
act of worship is a holding up to God of what 
God hath made us. " Here, Lord, look what I 
have got : feel with me in what Thou hast made 
me, in this Thy own bounty, my being. I am 
Thy child, and know not how to thank Thee, 
save by uplifting the heave-offering of the over- 
flowing of Thy life, and calling aloud, f It is 
Thine : it is mine. I am Thine, and therefore I 
am mine.' " The vast operations of the spirit- 
ual, as of the physical world, are simply a 
turning again to the source. 

The last act of our Lord, in thus commend- 
ing His spirit at the close of His life, was only 
a summing up of what He had been doing all 
His life. He had been offering this sacrifice, 
the sacrifice of Himself, all the years ; and in 
thus sacrificing He had lived the divine life. 
Every morning when He went out ere it was 




2o6 The Source of Strength. 



day, every evening when He lingered on the 
night-lapt mountain after His friends were 
gone, He was offering Himself to His Father 
in the communion of loving words, of high 
thoughts, of speechless feelings ; and, between, 
He turned to do the same thing in deed ; 
namely, in loving word, in helping thought, in 
healing action towards His fellows ; for the 
way to worship God while the daylight lasts is 
to work ; the service of God, the only " divine 
service," is the helping of our fellows. 

I do not seek to point out this commending 
of our spirits to the Father as a duty : that is to 
turn the highest privilege we possess into a 
burden grievous to be borne. But I want to 
show that it is the simplest, blessedest thing in 
the human world. 

For the human being may say thus with 
himself: "Am I going to sleep, to lose con- 
sciousness, to be helpless for a time, thought- 
less, dead? Or, more awful consideration, in 
the dreams that may come, may I not be weak 
of will and scant of conscience? Father, into 



The Source of Strength* 207 



Thy hands I commend my spirit. I give 
myself back to Thee. Take me, soothe me, 
refresh me, make me over again. Am I going 
out into the business and turmoil of the day, 
where so many temptations may come, to do 
less honorably, less faithfully, less kindly, less 
diligently, than the Ideal Man would have me 
do? Father, into Thy hands. Am I going to 
do a good deed? Then, of all times, Father, 
into Thy hands, lest the enemy should have 
me now. Am I going to do a hard duty, from 
which I would gladly be turned aside, to re- 
fuse a friend's request, to urge a neighbor's con- 
science? Father, into Thy hands I commend 
my spirit. Am I in pain? Is illness coming 
upon me to shut out the glad visions of a 
healthy brain, and bring me such as are 
troubled and untrue? Take my spirit, Lord, 
and see, as Thou art wont, that it has no more 
to bear than it can bear. Am I going to die? 
Thou knowest, if onty from the cry of Thy 
Son, how terrible that is; and if it comes not 
to me in so terrible a shape as that in which it 
came to Him, think how poor to bear I am 



2o8 The Source of Strength. 



beside Him. I do not know what the struggle 
means : for, of the thousands who pass through 
it every day, not one enlightens his neighbor 
left behind ; but shall I not long with agony 
for one breath of Thy air, and not receive it? 
Shall I not be torn asunder with dying? I will 
question no more. Father, into Thy hands I 
commend my spirit. For it is Thy business, 
not mine. Thou wilt know every shade x)f 
my suffering. Thou wilt care for me with 
Thy perfect Fatherhood ; for that makes my 
sonship, and in wraps and enfolds it. As a 
child, I could bear great pain when my father 
was leaning over me, or had his arm about me. 
How much nearer my soul cannot Thy hands 
come ! yea, with a comfort, Father of me, that 
I have never yet even imagined ; for how shall 
my imagination overtake Thy swift heart? I 
care not for the pain so long as my spirit is 
strong, and into Thy hands I commend that 
spirit. If Thy love, which is better than life, 
receive it, then surely Thy tenderness will 
make it great." Thus may the human being 
say with himself. 



The Source of Strength. 209 



Think, brothers ! think, sisters ! we walk in 
the air of an eternal Fatherhood. Every up- 
lifting of the heart is a looking up to the 
Father. Graciousness and truth are around, 
above, beneath us; yea, in us. When we are 
least worthy, then, most tempted, hardest, un- 
kindest, let us yet commend our spirits into 
His hands. Whither else dare we send them? 
How the earthly father would love a child who 
would creep into his room with angry, troubled 
face, and sit down at his feet, saying, when 
asked what he wanted, " I feel so naughty, 
papa, and I want to get good" ! Would he 
say to his child, w How dare you ! Go away, 
and be good, and then come to me"? And 
shall we dare to think God would send us 
away if we came thus, and would not be 
pleased that we came, even if we were as 
angry as Jonah? Would we not let all the 
tenderness of our nature flow forth upon such a 
child? And shall we dare to think, that if we, 
being evil, know how to give good gifts to our 
children, God will not give us His own Spirit 

14 



2io The Source of Strength. 



when we come to ask Him? Will not some 
heavenly dew descend cool upon the hot anger? 
some genial rain-drop on the dry selfishness? 
some glance of sunlight on the cloudy hope- 
lessness? Bread, at least, will be given, and 
not a stone ; water, at least, will be sure, and 
not vinegar mingled with gall. 



Thou knowest, eyelids raised not always up 
Unto Thy love (as none of ours are), droop 

As ours, o'er many a tear. 
Thou knowest, though Thy universe is broad, 
Two little tears suffice to cover all. 
Thou knowest, Thou, who art so prodigal 
Of beauty, we are oft but stricken deer 
Expiring in the woods, that care for none 
Of those delightsome flowers they die upon. 



George MacDonald. 




^OD, God! 

i With a child's voice I cry, 

Weak, sad, confidingly, 
God, God ! 



The Source of Strength. 21 1 



O blissful mouth which breathed the mournful 
breath 

We name our souls, self-spoilt ! — by that strong 
passion 

Which paled Thee once with sighs, — by that strong 
death 

Which made Thee once unbreathing — from the 
wrack 

Themselves have called around them, call them 
back, 

Back to Thee in continuous aspiration ! 

For here, O Lord, 
For here they travel vainly, — vainly pass 
From city pavement to untrodden sward, 
Where the lark finds her deep nest in the grass 
Cold with the earth's last dew. Yea, very vain 
The greatest speed of all these souls of men, 
Unless they travel upward to the throne 
Where sittest Thou, the satisfying One, 
With help for sins and holy perfectings 
For all requirements — while the archangel, raising 
Unto Thy face his full ecstatic gazing, 
Forgets the rush and rapture of his wings. 

Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



212 



The Source of Strength. 



OU see why Christ, the eternal Son of 



JL God, became incarnate — why God was 
manifest in the flesh. He saw that we were 
separated from one another by our sin — that 
each man was bearing his own burden, and 
staggering on to ruin beneath the load. He 
saw that we were all separated from Him, 
and that it was not competent for His omnipo- 
tence to render us help, unless it wrought by 
means of humiliation, and suffering, and death. 
Therefore "He made Himself of no reputation, 
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was 
made in the likeness of man ; and being found 
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross." All this vast descent was accom- 
plished in order that He might stand by our 
side, our almighty, loving Helper. And now 
we can lean on Him, "the Friend that sticketh 
closer than a brother," and bear ail our bur- 
dens, and yet walk with elastic step ; and take 
His yoke upon us too, and find it to be easy; 
His burden, and prove it light. 




The Source of Strength. 213 



You see, also, on what a broad foundation 
the promise rests: "He shall sustain you." 
Not to sustain a trusting soul, however bur- 
dened, would be to renounce His very incar- 
nation, to deny a thousand promises, to mock 
men instead of saving them. "He shall sus- 
tain thee." No load can ever come that will 
be too heavy for His strength. There may be 
some awful straits even in your earthly life, of 
which you yourself know nothing as yet, com- 
ing on. It is not likely ; but suppose the worst. 
Suppose adversities as wild as the wintriest of 
weather. Suppose sorrow far darker than the 
shortest winter day. Suppose temptation shak- 
ing the soul, as the wind shakes the trees or 
drives the waves before it. Suppose Death 
coming to you (as he will come in some way 
to us all), robed in his blackest garb, and 
casting out his terrors like hail. You will be 
sustained. The Lord will sustain you. He 
cannot forget the promise. He cannot forget 
one who carries it in his heart. He would let 
the rivers freeze in their fountains, and all the 



214 The Source of Strength, 



flowers wither to their roots, and the light die 
out of every star, sooner than fail in the fulfil- 
ment of it. He shall sustain thee. His grace 
is sufficient for thee. Come, then, and cast 
your burden now on Him. Lo ! He waits with 
outstretched hand, with longing heart, to re- 
ceive you to your rest. Listen how He pleads 
with the strange, tender pleading of sorrow 
and love, with a pleading which has won home 
many a wanderer, and which may win you 
now, at last, to Himself: "Come unto me, and 
I will give you rest." 

Alexander Raleigh. 



EARTHLY treasures, — fleeting, fading, — 
They can never give thee peace ; 
Thou wilt find in Jesus only 
All thy restless yearnings cease. 

Go to Him with all thy burdens, 

Cast upon Him every care ; 
He will heal thy bruised spirit, 

He will hear each broken prayer. 



The Source of Strength. 



2i5 



Peace that floweth as a river 
He can give thy fainting heart ; 

Only trust His gracious promise, 
Every cloud will then depart. 

C A. Means. 



HILDREN, if our souls have not been 



V*' touched by God's finger, we have no 
right to lay the cause of it to the charge of the 
Eternal God, as men often do when they say, 
figuratively, " God does not touch me, nor 
move me, as He does such and such a one." 
This assertion is false. God touches, impels, 
and admonishes all men alike, and, so far as it 
rests with Him, will have all men to be saved; 
but His touch, His admonitions, and His gifts 
find a different reception and response in dif- 
ferent men. With many, when God comes to 
them with His touch and His gracious gifts, He 
finds the chambers of their soul occupied and 
defiled by other guests. So then, He must 
needs go His way, and cannot come in to us, 




216 The Source of Strength. 



for we are loving and serving some one else. 
Therefore His gifts, which He offers without 
ceasing to every man, remain unaccepted. 
This is the cause of our eternal loss ; the guilt 
is ours, and not God's. How much useless 
trouble do we create for ourselves ! insomuch 
that we neither perceive our own condition nor 
God's presence, and thereby do ourselves an 
unspeakable and eternal mischief. Against 
this there is no better or surer remedy than an 
instant, resolute turning away of the thought, 
and hearty, fervent, continual prayer. Hereby 
we may obtain this steadfastness, together with 
a firm, and entire, and loving trust in the un- 
fathomable mercy of God, in which lies all our 
salvation, and likewise a diligent and faithful 
watchfulness to keep our goings ever in ac- 
cordance with the will of God, that all we do 
or abstain from, and all our affections, spiritual 
and natural, may remain at all times agreeable 
to the will of God. 

John Tauler. 



The Source of Strength. 217 



ALONE ? Thou need'st not be alone : 
One Friend divine is ever nigh ; 
He knows thy secret hopes and fears, 
He listens to thy feeblest cry. 

His words have mighty power to heal, 
His voice invites to peace and rest ; 

He longs to have His children lean 
In loving faith upon His breast. 

Confide in Him with all thine heart ; 

Tell Him thy struggles day by day ; 
Ask Him to grant thee needed strength, 

And light to guide thee on thy way. 

Fear not, though clouds and storms arise ; 

Thy Father sends them all in love ; 
He seeks to draw thy thoughts on high, 

And points thee to thy home above. 

C. A. Means. 



WHEN two persons meet who are able 
to recount similar necessities, what 
mutual disclosures take place ! What trustful 



2i8 The Source of Strength. 



communicativeness — what tender sympathy — 
is then manifest ! Then one soul gushes out 
and flows over into the other, and time steals 
rapidly on. But on the other hand, towards 
one w 7 ho knows not our needs by experience, 
we are dumb, reserved, and take no pleasure 
in communicating, because we fear that he 
will be able neither to" understand nor sym- 
pathize with us. So, indeed, would we have 
kept farther away from our heavenly Friend, 
had He not become our Companion in trib- 
ulation. But now the thought is exceedingly 
refreshing, that He Himself was tempted in 
all points like as we are, and knows the bit- 
terest anguish of our soul from His own ex- 
perience. Now, even though no fellow-man 
understands us, ah ! still we know there is yet 
one Friend at hand, to whom we need but lisp 
a word of our affairs and concerns, and He at 
once comprehends all we feel. His experience 
reaches down into the thickest nights of the 
soul — into the most frightful depths of inward 
sufferings or conflicts. 



The Source of Strength. 219 



Under no juniper tree canst thou sit which 
has not overshadowed Him ; no thorn can 
wound thee from which His heart has not 
bled ; no fiery dart can hit thee which has not 
been shot at His sacred head. He can indeed 
have compassion. 

F. W. Krummacher. 



HAVE ye become children in Christ Jesus? 
Prove that this holy hope dwells in your 
hearts, even a hope which can look out upon 
the whole path before you with the fullest com- 
posure and trust — even to the latest end. Yet 
further, let me ask, is your hope in like man- 
ner as your faith, and your love a glorified 
hope? Can ye tell on what foundation it rests? 
I am not speaking of that unconcerned care- 
lessness, with which a trifling spirit glances 
into the future. Christians are not men who 
do not care, but men who cast their care a-pon 
the Lord. Christians are not men w T ho see no 
thorns upon the track of life. Oh, no ; they 



220 The Source of Strength. 



are men who perhaps see far more thorns than 
all others do ,* but they are men who know 
from their own experience, that where Christ's 
grace is granted, all thorns at last swell and 
burst open into roses. In short, Christians are 
men who believe in the words, "If God be for 
us, who can be against us? He that spared 
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us 
all, how shall He not with Him also freely give 
us all things?" Observe here the foundation 
of the Christian hope. He who spared not 
His own Son for our sakes must be cherishing 
kind intentions towards us; and, if a man 
would tread his path in hope, he can properly 
require for this nothing more than the hearty, 
well-grounded conviction, " God means well 
with me. God has thoughts of peace towards 

me * Tholuck. 



OLORD, how happy is the time 
When in Thy love I rest, — 
When from my weariness I climb 
E'en to Thy tender breast ! 



The Source of Strength. 221 



The night of sorrow endeth there, 

Thy rays outshine the sun, 
And in Thy pardon and Thy care 

The heaven of heavens is won. 

I do not fear the wilderness, 

Where Thou hast been before ; 
Nay, rather would I daily press 

After Thee, near Thee, more ! 
Thou art my strength ; on Thee I lean ; 

My heart Thou makest sing ; 
And to Thy pastures green, at length, 

Thy chosen flock will bring. 

Dressler. 



I LOVE, with all the strength of my soul, 
this Bible, that it is so unfashionable to be 
acquainted with. Did I not love it, there 
would be no words to qualify my insensibility ; 
were I to hesitate to declare my love, my 
mean cowardice would exceed my ingratitude. 
When, happy, I grasp the book that God has 
given me, my happiness is not disturbed 



222 



The Source of Strength. 



thereby ; rather my joys are intensified by 
finding these limitless horizons. If unhappy, 
teased by cares, shaken in my faith, rebellious, 
famishing for truth, oh, how well it comforts 
me, this word of my God ! It is pure as rock 
crystal, more radiant than the sun, and it is 
human as well. It opens the heaven of heav- 
ens, and it comes down to illuminate the most 
obscure corners of the poorest lives. It issues 
from the heart of God, and it makes itself a 
home in my heart, such as it is. It conveys 
the thoughts of God, and speaks to me mouth 
to mouth. I come to it all bruised and bleed- 
ing. I have been repulsed. The best have 
hurt me by their touch. Sometimes they are 
severe, and exact too much ; sometimes they 
w r eakly leave me to sink in my languor. Not 
so the Bible. It has savor that refreshes* 
me, gentleness that soothes my sorrow r s. It 
rekindles the little faith about to die. It is an 
earnest of God's faithfulness, a witness of His 
love for me. Through it I know that Jesus 
wept. It assures me that I am His, and that 



The Source of Strength. 223 



He is mine. It is the voice, the very voice, of 
my heavenly Father. No other has ever spo- 
ken to me as it has done. 

I believe in the power of prayer. I believe 
that God takes an interest in the small affairs 
of the small creatures that He has placed upon 
this globe. I have a conviction that each mur- 
mur of our trembling voices, sometimes stifled 
with tears, is distinguished by God amidst the 
harmonies, perhaps the sobs, of the universe. 
I believe that when it is good for us, God 
grants our petitions. 

You wish to know how I reconcile the par- 
tial accident of the realization of our prayers 
with the immutable order of God's decrees? I 
do not reconcile it. 

I live upon a grain of dust ; God reigns in 
• Heaven. I can hardly distinguish one atom 
from another ; God embraces the immensity of 
past, present, future. Now, this God has said 
to me, "Ask all; I will give all." I hear, and 
I obey. 

If you press me hard, I shall venture to 



224 The Source of Strength. 



remind you of the divine prescience, which 
knew the prayers I should one day utter before 
I myself had seen the light. That which God 
has known beforehand, He may have heeded 
beforehand. 

Jesus has commanded me to open my heart 
and to stretch out my hands. It is enough for 
me to do as Jesus tells me. The apostles 
implored from God the recovery of a friend. 
When they were in prison, they asked to get 
out of it. When they were persecuted, beaten, 
they cried to Him for help ; and yet they were 
well aware that afflictions await us ; that our 
sorrows enter into the divine plan ; but submis- 
sive and persevering at the same time, they 
prayed to God to deliver them, and God did 
deliver. 

I speak to this God at every hour of the day. . 
That command, "Pray without ceasing," which 
scares so many people, constitutes my safety 
and makes my happiness. It is not enough for 
me to think about God ; my soul must pour 
itself out before Him. 



The Source of Strength, 



225 



When you have some beloved being beside 
you, does it suffice you to think of him? Not 
to speak to him, — why, would not that be a 
torture? Every time an idea occurs to you, a 
feeling overflows, you speak. Ah, if the fear 
of wearying did not restrain us, how far more 
freely would our heart give itself expression ! 

One can never weary God. What is it I 
say to Him? What does one say to one's 
father, and to one's mother? What does one 
not say? Is any eloquence required? All fear 
over, embarrassment gone, the lips move as 
the heart prompts, and the mother is satisfied, 
the father rejoices. 

Madame de Gasparin. 



I LOOK to Thee in every need, 
And never look in vain ; 
I feel Thy strong and tender love, 

And all is well again. 
The thought of Thee is mightier far 
Than sin, and pain, and sorrow are. 

15 



226 The Source of Strength* 



Discouraged in the work of life, 

Disheartened by its load, 
Shamed by its failures or its fears, 

I sink beside the road ; 
But let me only think of Thee, 
And then new heart springs up in me. 



(RAYER is an act of friendship also. It 



A is intercourse — an act of trust, of hope, 
of love, all prompting to interchange between 
the soul and an Infinite, Spiritual, Invisible 
Friend. We all need prayer, if for no other 
purpose, for this which we so aptly call com- 
munion with God. 

Robert Burns lamented that he could not 
"pour out his inmost soul without reserve to 
any human being, without danger of one day 
repenting his confidence." He commenced a 
journal of his own mental history, w as a sub- 
stitute," he said, "for a confidential friend." 
He would have something "which he could 
record himself in," without peril of having his 



Hymns of the Spirit. 




The Source of Strength. 227 



confidence betrayed. We all need prayer as a 
means of such intercourse with a Friend who 
will be true to us. 

Zinzendorf, when a boy, used to write little 
notes to the Saviour, and throw them out of 
the window, hoping that He would find them. 
Later in life, so strong was his faith in the 
friendship of Christ, and in his own need of 
that friendship as a daily solace, that once, 
when travelling, he sent back his companion, 
that he might converse more freely with the 
Lord, with whom he spoke audibly. 

So do we all need friendly converse with 
Him whom our souls love. " He alone is a 
thousand companions ; He alone is a world of 
friends. That man never knew what it was to 
be familiar with God, who complains of the 
want of friends while God is with him." 

Austin Phelps. 



CONSTANCY in prayer implies the habit 
of ejaculation. And what is ejaculatory 
prayer? A short, sudden, reverent address to 



228 The Source of Strength. 



God ; a devotional parenthesis. It is the pra} T er 
of emergencies, the prayer for vacant moments 
in hourly occupations, the prayer for all times 
and all events. It differs from the prayer of 
stated seasons in its brevity, and in being very 
much unpremeditated. It is that instant dart- 
ing of the soul upward to the mercy-seat which 
indicates what its tendency is. 

President Edwards, speaking of one period 
of his life, says, "I was almost constantly in 
ejaculatory prayer, wherever I w r as. Pra\^er 
seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by 
which the inward burnings of my heart had 
vent." Yet he was an indefatigable student at 
the time referred to, and neglected none of the 
common duties of life. No interference with 
such duties need be apprehended from this 
quarter; the plough, the plane, the needle, 
need not stop for it. The salesman's success 
will not be hindered ; the accountant's accura- 
cy will not suffer. The harvest-men of Boaz 
did not reap any the less for saying, "The Lord 
bless thee," nor the sword and trowel of Nehe- 



The Source of Strength. 



229 



miah's workmen move any the slower for the 
prayers they were sending up. The door to 
the palace of the Great King is hard by, and 
ever open ; it does not take even a moment to 
step into His presence. These quick embas- 
sies to Heaven meet with no delay. In his 
picture of a true Christian, Clement of Alex- 
andria remarks, "In every place will he pray, 
though not openly, to be seen of men. Even 
when he is walking for pleasure, even when 
he is in converse with other men, in stillness, in 
reading, and when he is engaged in reasonable 
business, he prays by all means. And even 
also if he only think on God in the chamber 
of the soul, and with silent sighing calls upon 
his Father, he will be near Him and with Him, 
for he is still speaking to Him." 



A. C. Thompson. 




ATHER, my all in all Thou art ; 
My rest in toil, my ease in pain ; 



The balm to heal my broken heart ; 
In storms my peace, in loss my gain ; 



230 



The Source of Strength. 



My joy beneath the worldling's frown ; 
In shame my glory and my crown ; — 

In want my plentiful supply ; 

In weakness my almighty power ; 
In bonds my perfect liberty ; 

My refuge in temptation's hour ; 
My comfort 'midst all grief and pain ; 
My life in death, my endless gain. 

C. Wesley. 



WE are on the homeward way together, 
and no doubt there is thus great mutual 
help ; but there is mutual hinderance as well. 
One often casts a shadow on the path of 
another. He looks with a clouded brow, with 
mistrustful eye. He speaks in a hesitating 
tone. He seems to see nothing but the wrong 
things, and the weaknesses ; the right and the 
growing strength are within, and are seen only 
by Him who looks from above. It is not only 
that the wrong things are seen, but often the 
right is called the wrong, and treated so. The 



The Source of Strength. 231 



signs of purity are interpreted as signs of 
guilt ; diffidence is confounded with pusilla- 
nimity, self-distrust with unfaithfulness ; a zeal- 
ous energy is sneered at as officiousness ; 
openness of action is called ostentation : there 
is no end of the misjudgments which are com- 
mon now among men, and even among Chris- 
tians. We are in mutual disguise, and we 
have the mutual discomforts of being unknown 
to each other. All this is trying enough ; but 
at least it should enhance and endear to us the 
truth we are now enforcing — that God alone can 
meet our nobleness. How precious the privi- 
lege of being able to turn to Him when we can 
turn to no one else ! He knows. He makes 
no mistakes. He sees, not the sin alone, but 
also the hatred of it; not weakness alone, but 
also the inward strength which will outlive that 
weakness. He sees the faltering nerve, but 
He sees also the unfaltering purpose. He sees 
the law in the members, but also the holier and 
stronger law of the mind. He sees that evil is 
often present with us, and yet that we would 



232 The Source of Strength. 



do good all the while. He sees that we are 
carnal, sold under sin ; He sees, far more, that 
we are spiritual, redeemed under grace. He 
knows that the flesh is weak; He knows also 
that the spirit is willing. He hears the cry, 
from many a struggling soul, "Oh, wretched 
man that I am ! " but while others, who may 
hear it also, only echo back the cry, and say, 
" Oh, wretched indeed ! " He gives it far differ- 
ent interpretation. To Him it is the cry of 
struggling nobleness, of purity out of sin. He 
meets that cry with all His sympathy, and will 
finally grant the deliverance that is desired. 
He will smite the sin and nourish the virtue ; 
He will take away the wretchedness and raise 
the man. Turn, then, to Him with all your un- 
suspected desires, with all your unappreciated 
purposes, with the actions that are misjudged, 
with the life which no one knows. Flee from 
father and mother, from brother and sister, to 
Him. From thine own self escape, and flee to 
Him. You will come out of the chill which 
unmerited suspicion may have cast around 



The Source of Strength. 



233 



you ; out of the shadow of your own fears, 
and your soul will recover itself in this, as in 
other things, by making that last and highest 
appeal, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? 
and on earth there is none whom I desire be- 
sides Thee." 

Alexander Raleigh. 



STILL evermore for some great strength we pray, 
Seeking and yearning for it day by day — ' 
A strength whereon undoubting we may lean, 
And find that rest we have but dimly seen. 

To lean our heart upon another heart, 
In love that neither life nor death can part ; 
So seek we still to end our life-long quest, 
For only in true love we find true rest — 

That love which makes another's life our own, 
And tunes our jarring natures to one tone ; 
The filling up of all we sought so long ; 
For leaning on itself no strength is strong. 

No love is perfect here : it leads us on 

To love's great Source — the uncreated One : 



234 



The Source of Strength. 



Most true is that through which we learn to see 
Most of Thy strength, and most, O Lord, of Thee ; — 

Which sees, in all its happiness and bliss, 
The promise of a joy more great than this ; 
Which seeks its perfectness forevermore 
In the love-light that gilds the happy shore. 

O strength ! O love and rest ! the light that steals 
From the pure sunshine of those golden fields I 
Faint rays we catch e'en now, upon our way, 
Lighting our footsteps to the land of day. 

Thou art the Light, the sunshine is from Thee, 
And in Thy heart is strength and purity ; 
There lean our weary hearts, there ends our quest, 
For there is perfect love and perfect rest. 



E should seek a friend in Jesus Christ — 



V V the best, truest, kindest, surest Friend 
man ever had. Ever living, ever loving, and 
everlasting, there is no father like our Father 
who is in heaven ; and as there is no father- 
hood like God's, there is no friendship like 



L. R. 




The Source of Strength. 235 



Christ's — to be once named with His, who, 
dying for us, the just for the unjust, laid down 
His life, not for friends, but enemies. Other 
friends change ; not He. Of them we may, 
and often do, expect too much ; nor will friend- 
ship be long maintained between us, unless we 
lay our account with sooner or later discover- 
ing, and bearing with, their faults. But Jesus 
is faultless, altogether lovely — a friend on 
whose favor we cannot reckon, and from 
whose kindness we cannot expect, too much. 
With a wider and far deeper meaning than the 
world attaches to the expression, in Him we 
have "a friend at court," whose intercessions 
for us are addressed to a gracious ear and a 
loving heart. In the presence of his Father, 
and amid the glories of the upper sanctuary, 
at the eternal source of all love, and blessing, 
and power, where pardons are granted to save, 
and grace is bestowed to sanctify, and angels 
wait to welcome, and mansions stand ready to 
receive us, He pleads our cause at God's right 
hand, omnipotent to save. 

Thomas Guthrie. 



236 The Source of Strength. 



HE that grows in grace grows in the 
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, becomes more acquainted with 
His character and work, more grateful for 
every instruction in these great subjects, and 
for every opportunity to meditate upon them. 
This is the great principle of the Christian's 
preparation for glory. He derives his comfort 
and peace more abundantly and directly from 
Christ. He becomes actually more conformed 
to Him in mind and character. He desires to 
see Him, and to serve Him more simply and 
completely. He strives to be increasingly in 
the custom of consulting Him, following Him, 
and depending upon Him. In his habitual 
experience, Christ becomes more really all to 
him; and his affections, his conscience, and 
his understanding, are all occupied in the effort 
to embrace and hold fast that blessed hope 
which has thus been given him in his Divine 
Redeemer and Lord. This constitutes an in- 
creasing preparation for that state in which to 



The Source of Strength. 237 



be with Christ is to be, and to have, forever, 
all that the soul can desire or need. The very 
simplicity which marks the commands and the 
promises of the gospel, thus marks also the 
character of those whom the Saviour blesses 
and receives. The nearer they approach Him, 
this simplicity of character marks them more 
completely. They gain more of that child-like 
spirit which lives, and loves to live, alone upon 
Him. And as each earthly idol is successively 
removed, and the cares of earth become less 
engrossing and distracting, and the heart is 
made more ready to be satisfied with Christ 
alone, as all its salvation and all its desire, 
the river is drawing nearer to the ocean, into 
which it will pour at last its cheerful current ; 
the soul is becoming riper and readier for a 
happy eternity ; and the Christian becomes 
more able, intelligently and affectionately, to 
say, "To depart and to be with Christ, which 
is far better." 

I would urge my readers to estimate proper- 
ly this important subject, and strive by all 



238 The Source of Strength. 



means, and constantly, to have the Saviour 
exalted in their minds, as Himself the rock of 
their salvation and the crown of their hope. 
There is much in our own self-righteous spirits, 
and much in the state of the world around us, 
to lead us off from this. The arts of the enemy 
are constantly directed here, to separate us from 
personal approach to the Saviour, and to unset- 
tle our confidence in Him. By every distract- 
ing allurement or care which he can employ, 
he will try to call off our minds from a constant 
waiting upon Christ. Be watchful and anx- 
ious, my friends, upon this subject. Be not 
satisfied with any aspect of apparent religion 
within you, or around you, which does not lead 
you to look off from everything besides, and, 
with more constant and complete dependence, 
to find your all in Jesus Christ the Lord ; to 
seek Him in prayer, to depend upon Him in 
love, and to rejoice in Him with hope. 

S. H. Tyng. 



The Source of Strength. 239 



THERE is no love like the love of Jesus, 
Never to fade or fall, 
Till into the fold of the peace of God 
He has gathered us all. 

There is no heart like the heart of Jesus, 

Filled with a tender lore ; 
Not a throb nor throe our hearts can know 

But He suffered before. 

There is 110 eye like the eye of Jesus, 

Piercing far away : 
Never out of the sight of its tender light 

Can the wanderer stray. 

There is no voice like the voice of Jesus : 

Ah, how sweet its chime ! 
Like the musical ring of some rushing spring 

In the summer time. 

Oh, might we listen that voice of Jesus, 

Oh, might we never roam, 
Till our souls should rest in peace on His breast, 

In the heavenly home ! 

W. E. Littlewood. 



240 



The Source of Strength, 



HE Father has given to us the Son as our 



X example. " He took upon Him the form 
of a servant, and was found in fashion as a 
man." " He was made under the law." Yet 
He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
from sinners. In all the various trials of a 
most persecuted and tempted life, He was ever 
the same spotless Redeemer, victorious over 
every spiritual enemy. Thus was there exhib- 
ited to us an illustration of what the law of God 
requires of each of us ; thus are we taught the 
manner in which we should live so as to please 
our Father who is in heaven. The temper of 
filial obedience would then lead us to strive with 
our whole spiritual might to copy the example 
which Christ has set before us ; to love the 
world as He loved it ; to be crucified to it as 
He was crucified to it ; and, under all the cir- 
cumstances of a human probation, to esteem it 
our meat and drink to do the will of our Father 
who is in heaven. 

While we are maintaining this conflict with 




The Source of Strength. 241 



all the powers of evil, and fighting the fight of 
faith, it is by the aid of Christ alone that we 
can come off conquerors. He has promised, 
if we do His will, to dwell with us and to be 
in us. He is not only the way, and the truth, 
but the life, the source, and sustainer of life, to 
every true believer. Faith would then teach 
us, renouncing all dependence upon ourselves, 
to rely wholly for spiritual strength on the grace 
that is in Christ Jesus. Thus the apostle de- 
clared, "When I am weak, then am I strong; 
I can do all things through Christ which 
strengthened me." And thus every believer 
knows that he has power to overcome his 
spiritual enemies, only as, in deep self-distrust, 
he learns to confide in the aid bestowed upon 
him by the Captain of his salvation. 

Francis Wayland. 

16 



242 



The Source of Strength. 



JESUS, my strength, my hope, 
On Thee I cast my care, 
With humble confidence look up, 
And know Thou hear'st my prayer. 
Give me on Thee to wait 
Till I can all things do ; 
On Thee, almighty to create ! 
Almighty to renew ! 

I want a sober mind, 

A self-renouncing will, 
That tramples down and casts behind 
The baits of pleasing ill ; 
A soul inured to pain, 

To hardship, grief, and loss ; 
Bold to take up, firm to sustain, 
The consecrated cross. 

I want a godly fear, 

A quick-discerning eye, 
That looks to Thee when sin is near, 

And sees the tempter fly ; 



The Source of Strength. 243 



A spirit still prepared, 

And armed with jealous care, 

Forever standing on its guard, 
And watching unto prayer. 

Charles Wesley. 



ITHIN the kingdom of the Incarnation, 



▼ ▼ the true law of man's life is no longer 
an ideal which eludes and disheartens us. It 
may be realized. That His creatures might no 
longer shrink from Him in their weakness and 
pollution ; that He might be their strong God 
in a deeper sense than He could be the strength 
of David ; that Christians might fold Him to 
their inmost souls with a wondering yet tri- 
umphant sense of possession, with a trembling, 
yet endearing intimacy of touch, which else 
had been inconceivable, — the Incomprehensible 
has submitted to bonds, the Eternal has entered 
into conditions of time, the Most Holy has been 
a Victim for sin. This is the central, the essen- 
tial, the imperishable faith of Christendom. It 




244 The Source of Strength. 



makes God the God of those who cling to Him 
in strong and simple confidence, after a manner 
and measure which they only can know who 
have the happiness to do so. For them the 
past is pardoned through the atoning blood. 
For them the problem of life is simple. The 
sky above their heads may be overclouded by 
a passing difficulty, but they have within them- 
selves Him whose very dwelling-place is hidden 
from other men. Through the Spirit and the 
Sacraments they lay true hold upon that Sacred 
Humanity in which dwelleth all the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily. Christ in them is the 
hope of glory. Their thoughts, their affec- 
tions, their resolves, are gradually interpene- 
trated by the intellect, and heart, and will of 
the Son of Man. They live, yet not they, but 
Christ liveth in them. He is at once their 
philosophy, and their robe of righteousness, 
and the internal principle of their progressive 
sanctification. They are made to sit with Him 
together in heavenly places ; they live beneath 
His smile, and partake of His bounty ; and 



The Source of Strength. 245 

they know that, if they be only true to Him, 
He will not leave them, and that in the land 
which lies beyond that horizon of time on which 
the strained eye of their souls rests with eager 
hope, they will be His, and He will be theirs, 
yet more intimately, and that forever. 

H. P. LlDDON. 



STRONG Son of God, Immortal Love, 
Whom we, that have not seen Thy face, 
By faith, and faith alone, embrace, 
Believing where we cannot prove ! 

Thou seemest human and divine ; 

The highest, holiest manhood Thou ; 

Our wills are ours, — we know not how, — 
Our wills are ours to make them Thine. 

O Living Will, that shall endure 

When all that seems shall suffer shock, 
Rise in the spiritual Rock, 

Flow through our deeds and make them pure, — 



246 The Source of Strength. 



That we may lift from out the dust 
A voice as unto Him that hears, 
A cry above the conquered years, 

To One that with us works, and trust, — 

With faith that comes of self-control, — 
The truths that never can be proved, 
Until we close with all we loved, 

And all we flow from, soul in soul. 

Tennyson. 



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